SPEAKER_00: It's good to be with you today.
SPEAKER_00: Before we jump in this morning, let me just give you a quick update on how things are going with our mission team in Mexico.
SPEAKER_00: There is some serious kingdom work happening down there in the Yucatan with our mission partners.
SPEAKER_00: And I think there's a great picture that we received that just encapsulates that.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so apparently the Holy Spirit is working in such a powerful way.
SPEAKER_00: Pastor Jason isn't growing hair, but his head is changing colors now.
SPEAKER_00: And so I hope he comes home with some good shampoo or soap or something.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's World Cup, right?
SPEAKER_00: Just kind of uh in full effect there.
SPEAKER_00: But in all seriousness, no, uh great reports from our team.
SPEAKER_00: This is a special season every summer in our church as teams go out every week uh to just take the message of the gospel literally around the world.
SPEAKER_00: And we're so excited to be part of that uh and thankful for a pastor who jumps in uh with both feet and his head to just really be part of what's going on there.
SPEAKER_00: So just wanted to give you that quick update.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but now we're gonna jump in today to Mark chapter four.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we're changing chapters as we continue our journey through Mark.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be in the first 20 verses of chapter four today.
SPEAKER_00: So I want to go ahead and invite you, get your Bible, find it, that place, so when we get there in just a moment, you'll be ready to go.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a Bible, there's one right in front of you in the pew rack there.
SPEAKER_00: Take that.
SPEAKER_00: Use it today, but take it with you uh to continue to use, to get into the word of God and let it get into you.
SPEAKER_00: We would love for that to be a gift from us to you uh today, to help you in your walk with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Well, this morning, I think it it was helpful for me just to think.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we've been here in Texas now almost five years, and uh it's a special place, uh I have to say.
SPEAKER_00: But one of the things I'm learning about Texans uh is you guys have some strong loyalties uh to some things.
SPEAKER_00: There are some things you guys love that I am really learning about, and uh so I just want to review those with you for a minute because I think it's important for you to know a little bit about yourself, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so here they are.
SPEAKER_00: First thing that you guys love.
SPEAKER_00: Throw it up on the screen for me there.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, except for the one potentially coming to Bernie.
SPEAKER_00: I think you love uh you love this place, okay?
SPEAKER_00: It's a gas station, guys.
SPEAKER_00: Uh let me just, it is a gas station.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I will have to say I've kind of been sucked into the Bucky's love.
SPEAKER_00: I'll have to just full confession, I think it's a pretty cool spot, and we'll stop quite often on road trips.
SPEAKER_00: Here's something else you love, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is almost the only soda that you guys love, right?
SPEAKER_00: It is, it is the soda.
SPEAKER_00: Now, full confession, I like it too.
SPEAKER_00: I do think there's other soft drinks out there that are worth drinking, right?
SPEAKER_00: The one that I would tell you, like the real debate is between Pepsi products and Coca-Cola products.
SPEAKER_00: That's where if you don't choose Coca-Cola, I'm not sure of your spiritual condition.
SPEAKER_00: I'm really not.
SPEAKER_00: But but you guys love Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Pepper.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: Here's another one.
SPEAKER_00: And I will have to say, five years in, I don't get it.
SPEAKER_00: McDonald's is better.
SPEAKER_00: I just have to say it.
SPEAKER_00: I know, I know, I know that may be the thing you guys say, just skidaddle, just get out of Texas, right?
SPEAKER_00: Go back to Tennessee, but I just have to say, you need to hear it.
SPEAKER_00: This is good for you to know.
SPEAKER_00: The fries are better.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna say it.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, at McDonald's.
SPEAKER_00: All right, now here's one.
SPEAKER_00: This is where the room starts to divide.
SPEAKER_00: You guys love breakfast tacos, and I share that love for breakfast tacos.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what I did for 44 years without them, uh, but I'm making up for it right now.
SPEAKER_00: But you guys love your breakfast tacos, but there is a debate in Bernie about where the best place to get it is, and I think I may have divided the room right here between those that are like Maggie's people and Mary's people, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Uh Maggie's is better.
SPEAKER_00: Um, okay, next.
SPEAKER_00: Now, here's the best one.
SPEAKER_00: I've been saving this one.
SPEAKER_00: This is my favorite picture.
SPEAKER_00: I've been I've I can't, I was just so excited to show this one because here's what I know.
SPEAKER_00: So many of you in this room want to love this picture and hate this picture all at the same time, and it is fabulous to me.
SPEAKER_00: You have strong loyalties to one of these, maybe, and strong animosity toward others.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, especially the two uh there at the top, you Aggies, go ahead and do it.
SPEAKER_00: There we go.
SPEAKER_00: All right, and then the techs fans in the room, because you guys are not UT.
SPEAKER_00: The SEC decided my team is the real UT.
SPEAKER_00: You guys are techs, so I just have to say it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I get it, like there's strong like allegiances here.
SPEAKER_00: The tech fans and the Baylor fans, you're just happy I put you in the picture, honestly, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like you're just glad you made it into the conversation.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: But there are, there are strong loves for things.
SPEAKER_00: We have passions for things in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And when people don't share those, when there are mixed responses to the things that we love, it's confusing to us.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why you guys don't love my color orange.
SPEAKER_00: It really makes me sad.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but you know, we get frustrated when people don't share some the love for some of the things.
SPEAKER_00: We get confused.
SPEAKER_00: We even can get discouraged when there are mixed responses, in all seriousness, to the things that we love, to the things that we hold dear.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Would you agree with that?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's true.
SPEAKER_00: That is that is just our our our human tendency, right?
SPEAKER_00: We want people to love the things we love, and we don't understand when they don't.
SPEAKER_00: And in our text today, there is an important question that we are going to need to answer is that when it comes to the person and the work of Jesus, how are we to understand the mixed responses that we see to him in the world around us?
SPEAKER_00: Each and every one of us, as we go through life, this can happen within our own families, it happens in our job places, it happens in our community, it happens in the world at large.
SPEAKER_00: We can look around and we see people with all kinds of responses to who Jesus is and what he came to do.
SPEAKER_00: And their response to it can sometimes be encouraging, sometimes it can be deflating, it can be discouraging.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing today, as we go through the parable that we're gonna see in Mark chapter four, I think the Lord is helping give us some handles that we sometimes don't even know that we need.
SPEAKER_00: Because the fact that there are so many mixed responses to Jesus, there are so many different responses to the gospel in the world, we don't realize the toll or the effect that it has on us as believers.
SPEAKER_00: But I believe it impacts us.
SPEAKER_00: And I believe one of the reasons Jesus gave us this parable is to help us be able to interpret what it is we see around us and how we can navigate those responses and not allow it to one, affect our walk with him or to affect living on mission for him.
SPEAKER_00: So today I want us to understand that because that's exactly what Jesus is doing for his disciples.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have time to go all the way back and start at the beginning of Mark's gospel, but if we did, you guys could see there have been so many responses to Jesus along the way.
SPEAKER_00: You have had demons recognize him but want him to leave.
SPEAKER_00: You have had the crowds gather to hear from him.
SPEAKER_00: You've had tax collectors lean in to want to listen to Jesus, but you've had the religious leaders oppose him.
SPEAKER_00: You've had his own family members tell people he's kind of crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Let's get him and take him home and let's hide him because he's lost his mind.
SPEAKER_00: You've even had the scribes, the religious leaders, oppose him and say that he has been empowered by Satan.
SPEAKER_00: Everywhere Jesus has gone in the first three chapters of Mark's gospel, he has been met with a variety of responses to who he is.
SPEAKER_00: But Mark tells us in chapter one, verse 15, that Jesus came to preach this message that the kingdom of God is at hand and we are to repent and believe.
SPEAKER_00: And that message, that message of the gospel has created a response in people along the way.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we come to Mark chapter 4, the disciples, they need they need handles to know what to do with this, what they've seen, to know how to process all that they've seen up until this point.
SPEAKER_00: But also, Mark chapter 6 is coming.
SPEAKER_00: And in Mark chapter 6, the disciples are gonna be sent out by Jesus to proclaim the gospel message, to tell people that the kingdom of God is come, to repent and to believe in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And along the way, they are going to meet these same responses that Jesus has gotten.
SPEAKER_00: So they need help knowing how to filter that, how to think about that as they go.
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna be met with all types of responses.
SPEAKER_00: So Mark 4 is training ground in the most literal sense for the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is gonna tell a parable and then he's gonna explain the parable.
SPEAKER_00: And really the point of that is to prepare his followers to live their life faithfully, no matter what the response of the culture around them is.
SPEAKER_00: He's training them, he's preparing them for what they will see around them and how they are to engage in the work that the gospel calls each and every one of us to as followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But before we jump in, I'm gonna throw something on the screen that we're not gonna unpack, but take a picture of it if you want to to go back.
SPEAKER_00: This will help you as you read your Bible to know how to interpret parables.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so this is hermeneutics 101 for understanding uh parables.
SPEAKER_00: And that's this look for the main point.
SPEAKER_00: There is a main point to a parable.
SPEAKER_00: The details around it support that main point and help to illuminate it, to make it clearer for you.
SPEAKER_00: Pay attention to context.
SPEAKER_00: Context matters in any interpretation and reading of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: It's very important in the parables to understand the context around what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: And then whenever Jesus actually interprets the parable in the text, it's actually really important to pay close attention to what he's saying.
SPEAKER_00: And thankfully, in our parable today, Jesus does explain the meaning of the parable for us.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, in verse 13, we're gonna get there in just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: He says this parable is the key to understanding all of the parables because the parables teach us lessons about the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: And that's Mark's whole point is that the kingdom of God is here and it is it is moving in our midst.
SPEAKER_00: And the parables help us understand the how and the why and what is going on.
SPEAKER_00: So, without any more delay, let's go to the word of God and let's read our text today.
SPEAKER_00: Mark chapter 4, verses 1 through 20.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, Again, he began to teach beside the sea, and a very large crowd gathered around him, so that he got into a boat and sat on it in the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.
SPEAKER_00: And he was teaching them many things in parables, and his teaching he said to them, Listen, behold, a sower went out to sow.
SPEAKER_00: And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
SPEAKER_00: Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil, and it immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil.
SPEAKER_00: And when the sun rose it was scorched, and since it had no root it withered away.
SPEAKER_00: Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and it choked it, and it yielded no grain.
SPEAKER_00: And other seeds fell into the good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: But for those outside, everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, Do you not understand this parable?
SPEAKER_00: How will you understand all the parables?
SPEAKER_00: The sower sows the word, and these are the ones along the path where the word is sown.
SPEAKER_00: When they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown into them.
SPEAKER_00: And these are the ones sown on rocky ground, the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy.
SPEAKER_00: And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while.
SPEAKER_00: Then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.
SPEAKER_00: And others are the ones sown among thorns.
SPEAKER_00: They are those who hear the word.
SPEAKER_00: But the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
SPEAKER_00: But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and a hundredfold.
SPEAKER_00: Before we unpack the parable, I want you to go to verses 10 through 13 for a minute because I think it helps explain the parable and the explanation of the parable.
SPEAKER_00: Because in these three verses, Jesus gives us a little peek into the mystery of the kingdom of God, that it has come.
SPEAKER_00: And he's explaining to them about the kingdom in parables.
SPEAKER_00: So there's two definitions that are going to be really important for us to have as we think about what we're reading here and what we're to understand.
SPEAKER_00: So the first thing is the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: What does he mean by the kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: Well, just simply put, the kingdom of God is God's reign and God's rule breaking into the world through the coming of King Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Mark's gospel is all about.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has come and he's come with authority, he's come with power.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom has come.
SPEAKER_00: The work of God, God's plan of redemption, is now on full display in the person of Jesus here on this earth.
SPEAKER_00: It's always been God's plan for Christ to come, but now it is here.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom has come, and that is what they're proclaiming.
SPEAKER_00: But then he talks about the kingdom with this term, the secret of the kingdom or the mystery of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what this is not, this is not saying it is something that is unknowable.
SPEAKER_00: But it is something that has been previously hidden, that has now become revealed, and it's become revealed in the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: All through the Old Testament, the prophets were declaring and prophesying about the kingdom, but they wondered what it would be like and when it would come.
SPEAKER_00: The people of Israel, they longed for the kingdom, and they had expectations of what the kingdom would be, that it would come immediately.
SPEAKER_00: And when it came immediately, it would come powerfully, it would come victoriously, and it would come to fix all the things that they wanted fixed around them.
SPEAKER_00: They had a very specific idea of what the coming of the kingdom meant.
SPEAKER_00: But when Jesus comes, the kingdom doesn't look like they thought it would look.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom is different.
SPEAKER_00: It starts off slow, it grows, it requires patience, it requires waiting.
SPEAKER_00: But the parables help us understand there's a harvest.
SPEAKER_00: There is, there is a definitive, there is an expectation that is that is real for us to set our sights on that the kingdom of God is going to advance and it is going to be victorious in this world, but it may not happen exactly the way that we would want it to, in our own limited human understanding.
SPEAKER_00: And so the parables help us understand these two things.
SPEAKER_00: But make no mistake, the kingdom has come because the king has come.
SPEAKER_00: And because the king has come, we're gonna see in this parable the seed is being sown, the seed of the gospel is being sown in this world and it will produce a harvest.
SPEAKER_00: There is a harvest that is coming.
SPEAKER_00: So now let's unpack the parable for just a minute.
SPEAKER_00: Let's begin in verses 3 and let's go up to about verse 9 here, looking at the parable.
SPEAKER_00: And there's something I want to call your attention to here.
SPEAKER_00: The big idea is that the kingdom will advance.
SPEAKER_00: How?
SPEAKER_00: Through the sowing of the word.
SPEAKER_00: That is the main focus in this text.
SPEAKER_00: Is that as the word is sown, and let's just go ahead and clarify what it is.
SPEAKER_00: The sower is any of us sowing the seeds of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The seed is the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: It is the message of who Jesus is and what Jesus has come to do.
SPEAKER_00: That God has stepped into time and in the person of Jesus, He has come to be our substitute, to take our place on the cross, to die the death we deserve, to be buried, and then to rise again, to have victory over sin and death, and to give us life.
SPEAKER_00: That's the seed that is being sown, this message of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The soil is the hearts of those that the seed falls on.
SPEAKER_00: So there's our key to understanding the parable.
SPEAKER_00: But for us, I want us to look at this verse here, verses two, three, and four.
SPEAKER_00: There's some key phrases here that I think are really helpful for us.
SPEAKER_00: First of all, the fact that the kingdom advances through the sowing of the word, when Jesus begins this parable, he first says, listen.
SPEAKER_00: This is a call for everyone to listen.
SPEAKER_00: This is just a little extra for you.
SPEAKER_00: This is a freebie today.
SPEAKER_00: All right, this message that Jesus is declaring, he's not at telling this parable just to the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: This is to the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: He wants everyone to listen to what he is saying about the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone has the invitation to hear and to receive.
SPEAKER_00: But then he says something here.
SPEAKER_00: The sower went out to sow.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is not just a pithy statement, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's memorable.
SPEAKER_00: No, this is practical.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: This is something, let's not overcomplicate what the word of God simplifies.
SPEAKER_00: What are we called to do as followers of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Sow the seed of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: What does a sower do?
SPEAKER_00: A sower sows.
SPEAKER_00: What does a farmer do?
SPEAKER_00: A farmer farms.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: There is simplicity here, and sometimes we overcomplicate it.
SPEAKER_00: It is so clear.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says in this parable, how are we to understand the kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: Sowers go out and sow seed.
SPEAKER_00: We're to go out and sow seed.
SPEAKER_00: But then he says, as he sowed, some seed fell, and then he goes into where the seed fell.
SPEAKER_00: And at first reading, you might think, well, man, what a dumb farmer, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because he is sowing and he's like throwing the seed on the hard path, and he sees a patch of like really shallow ground with a bunch of rocks in it, and he goes, Well, let me just throw some over there and see what happens.
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, Oh, there's a patch of thorns.
SPEAKER_00: Let's put some in there and let's see what happens.
SPEAKER_00: That's not at all what the farmer's doing.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: One of the first century uh agricultural uh practices of this day in this region, you sowed seed before you fully cultivated or plowed the land.
SPEAKER_00: You would sow the seed and then you would come back again and you would turn the ground over and turn that seed over into the ground.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as the farmer is sowing, this is not carelessness, this is confidence, because he believes that the seed, when it falls on good soil, it will produce a harvest.
SPEAKER_00: He's not worried about the seed being fragile or the seed, you know, needing help.
SPEAKER_00: It's no, this is powerful, this is good seed, and it will do what it's supposed to do if he is faithful to sow the seed.
SPEAKER_00: Believer, follower of Jesus in this room, are you being faithful to sow the seed?
SPEAKER_00: The seed doesn't change in the parable, the sower doesn't change, the only thing that varies is just the soil that it falls on.
SPEAKER_00: But what we're meant to see is that the way the kingdom of God advances in this world is by you and I being faithful to sow the seed of the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Because the word of God is authoritative, the word of God is infallible, the word of God is inerrant, the word of God is the authority for our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Believer, there is nothing else for us to build our lives on.
SPEAKER_00: One of our core values as a church is that we value the truth of God's word over the opinion of man.
SPEAKER_00: And church, let that be said of me, let that be said of you is that the word of God is our foundation.
SPEAKER_00: The Word of God is our anchor.
SPEAKER_00: It is our hope.
SPEAKER_00: And we, may it be the practice of our lives to show that we truly believe that it is all that we need is the Word of God to sustain us and that we are to be faithful to let it take root in our own lives and produce fruit, but to be faithful to sow it as we go through this life.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus explains the parable in verses 15 through 20.
SPEAKER_00: And I want you to see that with me here for just a moment.
SPEAKER_00: And as he does, what we see is that the condition of the heart determines the response of the seed.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same seed, but it encounters different soils.
SPEAKER_00: What are the different soils?
SPEAKER_00: Quickly, I want you to see this with me here.
SPEAKER_00: The first one, it's the hard ground.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens?
SPEAKER_00: The hard heart, right?
SPEAKER_00: The soil represents the human heart.
SPEAKER_00: So the hard heart, what does it do?
SPEAKER_00: It rejects the seed, right?
SPEAKER_00: It falls on the ground and it says the birds come and pluck it up.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a picture, right?
SPEAKER_00: Of someone who just flat out rejects.
SPEAKER_00: They hear it, but they reject it.
SPEAKER_00: The second soil is the shallow heart.
SPEAKER_00: He says it receives it, it leans in, it's curious.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, maybe there's a little bit of enthusiasm or excitement about hearing the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: But what does it prove?
SPEAKER_00: It proves shallow.
SPEAKER_00: There's no root.
SPEAKER_00: So when the cares of this world creep in, right, this produces no fruit because there's no root to this.
SPEAKER_00: Now hear me clearly, with this soil and the next soil, I am not talking about a believer who falls away or a believer who goes through a tough season.
SPEAKER_00: No, this is talking about someone who's never placed their faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: As a believer, we know we all go through difficult seasons where maybe the fruit in our lives is not as evident as it might be at other times.
SPEAKER_00: And we go through times where there's incredible growth and maybe less growth.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what he's talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about no growth, no root, no life.
SPEAKER_00: The third soil, he says, is the seed that fell in the thorny grounds.
SPEAKER_00: And it says the cares of this world creep in and choke this seed out so that it does not produce fruit.
SPEAKER_00: It's the crowded heart.
SPEAKER_00: But then that final soil, the good soil, is this idea of the transformed heart, the heart that has truly taken the seed in, and they've someone has placed their faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And as a result of the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of this genuine believer who's responded in repentance and faith, there becomes a root, and that root it grows up in them and they produce fruit.
SPEAKER_00: This is the mark of the child of God, and that is what Jesus wants us to see.
SPEAKER_00: Now we could spend so much time unpacking this, but I want you to understand this.
SPEAKER_00: All four soils have the opportunity to hear the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: The seed is sown.
SPEAKER_00: They have everyone hears the middle two soils, the word that is used that they receive it.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what that's talking about, the Greek word there, it's this idea of curiosity.
SPEAKER_00: It's this idea of interest, of consideration.
SPEAKER_00: But the word that is used for the good soil is a stronger Greek word.
SPEAKER_00: And this one is the one that says to embrace, to take what you hear into yourself and make it your own.
SPEAKER_00: This is the idea of the good soil.
SPEAKER_00: So the first three soils just explain different expressions of unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: But the fourth soil reveals saving faith.
SPEAKER_00: And the distinguishing mark is producing fruit.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the amount of fruit.
SPEAKER_00: He says, hey, the fruit, it's 30fold, 60fold, 100fold.
SPEAKER_00: There's different amounts of fruit that are produced, but the mark of genuine faith is that there is evidence that there is fruit in your life and in my life.
SPEAKER_00: So what's the point?
SPEAKER_00: The parable has a point.
SPEAKER_00: What is the point of the parable?
SPEAKER_00: It's the certainty of the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: And that is what is meant to sustain the disciples in this training ground.
SPEAKER_00: To process what they have seen, to process what they're going to see.
SPEAKER_00: The certainty of the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: In this parable, Jesus is not just diagnosing different types of soil.
SPEAKER_00: He's not just identifying it.
SPEAKER_00: He's not really calling us to be soil inspectors.
SPEAKER_00: What he's doing is preparing his disciples for the work that he has called them to do, the work that the gospel has called us into of sowing seeds.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to meet all kinds of people as they go, and they're to be faithful in their going to sow the seed wherever they go of who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: So, what is the parable meant to accomplish then in their lives?
SPEAKER_00: And what is it meant to accomplish in our lives?
SPEAKER_00: The first thing the parable protects them, it protects us from despair.
SPEAKER_00: Church, when people reject the word of God, the seed that we are sowing, the seed is not failed.
SPEAKER_00: When we have loved ones that remain far from God, we are not meant to see that as though the gospel has failed, that the seed has failed.
SPEAKER_00: As our culture continues to grow darker and seeming to drift further and further away from the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: We are not meant to interpret that and come away with despair that somehow the seed is not good.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is just helping us understand this will happen.
SPEAKER_00: There are different soils, there are different conditions of the human heart.
SPEAKER_00: As the seed falls, it will result in different outcomes.
SPEAKER_00: But it is not the seed that is off.
SPEAKER_00: The seed is good, the gospel is good, the gospel is the power of God for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: There is no other gospel that we need in this life.
SPEAKER_00: It is meant to protect us from despair.
SPEAKER_00: But this parable is also meant to give us confidence.
SPEAKER_00: And here's where I want to spend the rest of our time because here is what I believe we need, because a lack of confidence when we see the world around us and we think it's moving further and further away from the Lord, and I'm growing discouraged, and I'm doubt is beginning to creep in.
SPEAKER_00: That doesn't just impact the world at large, it actually impacts us, and it starts to affect the way we live our Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: When the thing that we claim we've placed our faith in, we start to wonder: is it really doing what Scripture says it's meant to do?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We start, those questions creep in.
SPEAKER_00: We're not human.
SPEAKER_00: If those questions, those doubts, those discouragements, the confusion doesn't start to creep in.
SPEAKER_00: We say, God, is it really happening?
SPEAKER_00: Is what you said really going to come to fruition?
SPEAKER_00: Is the kingdom really going to advance?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't just impact our minds.
SPEAKER_00: It actually starts to impact our hearts, which impacts our own behavior and our own, letting the gospel do the work that it wants to continue to do in us.
SPEAKER_00: So this parable is really meant to help every single one of us have confidence in what the gospel is.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need a second gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to supplement the gospel with something else.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is not in Jesus plus the political party or in Jesus plus plus cultural influence or Jesus plus wealth or Jesus plus community influence.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope, our confidence is Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: End of story.
SPEAKER_00: This parable is meant to show us the seed is good.
SPEAKER_00: The seed will produce a harvest.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is calling each and every one of us back to that truth.
SPEAKER_00: The truth that he is the answer.
SPEAKER_00: He's always been the answer.
SPEAKER_00: He will always be the answer.
SPEAKER_00: And the advancement of his kingdom depends upon the king working through the sowing of his word.
SPEAKER_00: So this morning, I have a question for two groups of people in this room.
SPEAKER_00: Let me start with the person who maybe is sitting here today and you're far from God.
SPEAKER_00: You know you've never placed your faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You've never repented of your sins and declared Jesus Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And today, perhaps, as you sit here, you realize I'm one of those first three soils.
SPEAKER_00: Like I see it today.
SPEAKER_00: I understand.
SPEAKER_00: I've got a hard heart, I've got a shallow heart, I've got a crowded heart, and I've never let the seed of the gospel take root in me and begin to grow up and produce a harvest.
SPEAKER_00: This morning, can I ask you?
SPEAKER_00: Is today the day that you will respond to Jesus in repentance and faith?
SPEAKER_00: To let the seed of the gospel take root in you, to transform your hard heart into a heart that is ripe and fertile for the gospel to grow and produce fruit in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Is today the day that you will respond to the only one who can change a heart, to the only one who can make bad soil, good soil for the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: As clearly as I can today, can I say, come to Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Let that seed take root and find life in him that you will not find in anything else or anyone else.
SPEAKER_00: Believer in the room, let me talk to you for a moment as I also talk to myself.
SPEAKER_00: Because this is the point where the Lord has been dealing with me in the text this week.
SPEAKER_00: And it is that idea when I start to let the mixed responses to Jesus begin to have too much influence in my life, here's what begins to happen.
SPEAKER_00: A mixed response can distort my perspective.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, I quit seeing the kingdom the way Jesus explained the kingdom, and I start having expectations of what it means to walk with Jesus that are determined by me and not by the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: So has your perspective become distorted?
SPEAKER_00: And today, do you need to come back to the Word of God and say, Lord, your kingdom will come the way you say your kingdom will come?
SPEAKER_00: My job is not to determine how it happens.
SPEAKER_00: My responsibility is to surrender to you and to walk with you and let you lead the way, and I will follow you.
SPEAKER_00: You're the king of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: I am not.
SPEAKER_00: But have mixed responses.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they've distracted you from the mission.
SPEAKER_00: You've become, if we're just honest, you've become discouraged in sowing because of the soil.
SPEAKER_00: You've started to just say, What is it, is it worth it?
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The world around me is so dark, things are so divisive, things are so bad out there.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I just need to hunker down and try to survive till Jesus takes me home.
SPEAKER_00: And you've just stopped sowing seed.
SPEAKER_00: We are never, there is no category in scripture for a follower of Jesus to stop sowing the seeds of the gospel as you go through life.
SPEAKER_00: Our job is just to sow faithfully.
SPEAKER_00: God's job is to be the one to produce the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: The pressure is not on us.
SPEAKER_00: We just get the privilege of sowing the seed.
SPEAKER_00: And the final category, maybe, where mixed responses have impacted your life, it has diminished your confidence potentially in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And if I had to guess, I would say that this hits close to home for a lot of us in this room today, and it's subtle.
SPEAKER_00: So pay careful attention.
SPEAKER_00: This one is very subtle, but I think this defines American Christianity today.
SPEAKER_00: We have started in the what we don't say it with our lips, but it's what we practice with our life, is that we think now we need the gospel plus something else to have a full life.
SPEAKER_00: This is where this isn't just about sowing the seed for others to hear.
SPEAKER_00: This is about preaching the gospel to ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And this is where it becomes so dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: When we start to lose confidence in what we see out there, we quit preaching the gospel to ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And so then we quit producing the fruit in our own lives that God has desired for us to produce.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: We quit finding our our greatest fulfillment in who we are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And we start looking for it in other things.
SPEAKER_00: The root of that is we quit believing that the gospel is enough.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe today, church, for us, the important thing for us to do today is just to declare again, it's good for us, just to state it with our mouths, but to believe it in our heart, the gospel is enough.
SPEAKER_00: The seed of the gospel will produce fruit in my life, it will produce fruit in others' lives.
SPEAKER_00: I've got to be faithful to sow it.
SPEAKER_00: So as our worship team comes and we have a time to respond today.
SPEAKER_00: So today, are you listening to what Jesus is saying to us through this parable?
SPEAKER_00: He gave it to us so that when we're tempted to misinterpret what we see around us, our hearts can be settled on the truth that the king has come, that the seed is enough, that the harvest is certain.
SPEAKER_00: Even though you and I live in the already, but the not yet of the harvest, we see glimpses, but this side of heaven will never know what all the kingdom is producing, but that does not allow us or give us the the right to step back and quit participating in the sowing of the seed.
SPEAKER_00: The harvest is certain.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe it?
SPEAKER_00: Are you committed to it?
SPEAKER_00: Is today a day that you just need once again to say, Jesus, you're enough?
SPEAKER_00: And I'll be faithful to preach that to myself and to preach it to others as I sow the seeds of the kingdom and allow you to do what only you can do through it.
SPEAKER_00: So today, I want to invite you right now to stand.
SPEAKER_00: We'll have ministers down front who would love to pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to respond to say, I am one of those first three soils, and today I am, I am coming to place my faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They would be, we would be happy to walk you through how to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you need to use this altar or the place where you sit right now to just say, God, I have allowed mixed responses to the gospel to impact my walk with you.
SPEAKER_00: And today I need to repent of those and declare once again that you are enough.
SPEAKER_00: However, the Spirit is leading you today, would you respond to Him in faith?
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, take your word and use it in our hearts as only you can.