SPEAKER_00: Well, good morning, everybody.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to see you all.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us online.
SPEAKER_00: If you're joining us online, this proves to me that if we ever need to start an 8 a.m.
SPEAKER_00: service, we can do it.
SPEAKER_00: That's what this proves to me.
SPEAKER_00: So thank you for being here, being lively, being energetic.
SPEAKER_00: I'm excited to open God's word with you this morning.
SPEAKER_00: If you have a Bible or Bible app, I open, I encourage you to open it to Matthew chapter 13, verses 3 through 8.
SPEAKER_00: Again, that's Matthew chapter 13, verses 3 through 8.
SPEAKER_00: I'm continuing our teaching series this morning called Stories Jesus Told.
SPEAKER_00: It's a look at the various parables.
SPEAKER_00: This morning is one of the most well-known parables that Jesus told.
SPEAKER_00: It's the parable of the sower.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're not familiar with parables, parables are stories that reveal a truth about something.
SPEAKER_00: It's a hidden truth, something un uh previously unknown, but that Christ has chosen to reveal to us specifically as it pertains to the kingdom of heaven, which is the unseen realm where God is the authority over all things, or about the human heart inside the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: This particular parable is about the human heart and how it responds to the invitation to join the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this parable is found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
SPEAKER_00: So it's in three different places, and here's what that means it's very important.
SPEAKER_00: When it's replicated in the various gospels, every disciple of Jesus latches onto this story, and they say, This is really important for us to know because it reveals something.
SPEAKER_00: Specifically, this parable shows us how the gospel works to create new life in somebody.
SPEAKER_00: So there's what the gospel does, it brings about salvation, but how does the gospel actually work to bring about life in somebody that transforms them for eternity?
SPEAKER_00: And when you as a follower of Jesus understand this parable, it creates great joy in sharing the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, real joy with real expectation.
SPEAKER_00: It also helps you understand why people reject the gospel, because there are people who don't believe.
SPEAKER_00: And you need to understand why they don't believe.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what Jesus says about these individuals.
SPEAKER_00: So read with me Matthew chapter oh, sorry.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna read yet.
SPEAKER_00: I want to share a story first.
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
SPEAKER_00: I got ahead of myself.
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you look outside your doors right now, I know it's not quite spring, but boy, tomorrow I've heard it's gonna be really nice.
SPEAKER_00: You all excited about tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we're excited about tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: 73 degrees, and then Tuesday, 79.
SPEAKER_00: You know what that means?
SPEAKER_00: Motorcycle weather.
SPEAKER_00: That's what that means.
SPEAKER_00: But for everybody else, for everybody else, that means it's probably time to start tending their lawns and uh doing some things.
SPEAKER_00: And if you look at Lancaster County, all of our farmers are getting ready to sow various seeds out inside of their fields, whether they're sowing corn or soybean or alfalfa.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's always kind of a unique thing to see what pops up out of the ground.
SPEAKER_00: But the farmers are in the middle of preparing their fields to sow and put their seeds in.
SPEAKER_00: And in a very small way, I'm going to be joining in that tradition this year, but I will not be planting in a farm field.
SPEAKER_00: Instead, I'll be planting grass seed on my lawn.
SPEAKER_00: It's a very small, small way I'm joining the process.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not much of a farmer or a grower of things, just so you know.
SPEAKER_00: Uh but when you go out and if you have a lawn, and I'm sure many of you do in Lancaster County, we like to take care of our yards.
SPEAKER_00: That's a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, in my barnslash building, I have a Scots seed spreader, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And I will begin loading it up with a bunch of grass seed, and very shortly I'll go up and down my yard spreading the seed from my spreader.
SPEAKER_00: And what I found is that if you walk through your yard, there's all kinds of various soils in your yard, aren't there?
SPEAKER_00: Uh when I go up and down near my driveway, sometimes that seed will land on my driveway.
SPEAKER_00: And when the seed lands on my driveway, that seed is effectively useless.
SPEAKER_00: It's not going to do anything, but it might feed some birds, and that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, then there's other soil parts where I have these garden beds where I've mulched them, and mulch is this great barrier.
SPEAKER_00: It holds in moisture, but it also prevents weeds from growing, and that's why you put mulch down.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what else it does?
SPEAKER_00: It can also occasionally prevent grass from growing there, which is good.
SPEAKER_00: But every now and again some seed will fall over there, and sure enough, little tufts of grass pop up.
SPEAKER_00: And every March, April, May, June, July, you're out there picking out the little grass seeds from your mulch bed.
SPEAKER_00: But that's okay.
SPEAKER_00: They come up and they're very shallow.
SPEAKER_00: There's other parts of my yard, you know, and it's the very untended spots, the sides of my yard.
SPEAKER_00: And I got some woods if you ever come to my property.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of weeds and thicket and stuff down there.
SPEAKER_00: I'll spread that way.
SPEAKER_00: Grass will land over there and grass will grow, but it's not going to predominantly grow over there because there's so much other junk in that part of the yard.
SPEAKER_00: And then there's the other part of my yard, which is the manicured part, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's the part that's mowed, it's got the crisp lines, it's the ones where you edge with your trimmer.
SPEAKER_00: I've tended that soil.
SPEAKER_00: I've aerated it, I've prepared it to receive the soil or the seed, and every time I spread my grass seed, it lands in the aerated holes, and sure enough, it will begin to germinate new life, creating that very thick, lush Lancashire green grass we all desire.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: That's uh reality that I do every single spring.
SPEAKER_00: My guess is you're gonna do the very same thing for some of you.
SPEAKER_00: You'll do more, you'll do less.
SPEAKER_00: But when I'm spreading the seed over those various types of soil, I don't take a whole lot of time to plant each grass seed individually.
SPEAKER_00: If you've never seen a grass seed, and some of you young people probably have never looked at one, they're very tiny.
SPEAKER_00: And it would be ridiculous for me to go through and find every aerated hole in one seed at a time, carpet my lawn.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you've seen how many blades of grass there are out there.
SPEAKER_00: It's an insane number.
SPEAKER_00: And so you don't plant the seeds individually, you just scatter it, right?
SPEAKER_00: You just spread it out there, and you hope that eventually the seed will get into a spot where it can take root and bear life.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's the same story of the parable of the sowers.
SPEAKER_00: That's Matthew chapter 3, verses 3 through 8.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't you read it with me?
SPEAKER_00: It'll be on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: Then he, Jesus, told them many things in parables, saying, A farmer went out to sow his seed, and as he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came up and ate it.
SPEAKER_00: Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.
SPEAKER_00: But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.
SPEAKER_00: Other seed fell among the thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.
SPEAKER_00: Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.
SPEAKER_00: Now, whenever we go to understand a parable, we have to understand the parable through the lens of the characters being presented to us.
SPEAKER_00: In this particular parable, you have the sower, and you have the soils, and you have the seed.
SPEAKER_00: Those are the three specific characters that this parable is focusing on.
SPEAKER_00: And if you read all of Matthew chapter 13, this is one of the few parables that Jesus actually explains word for word.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I don't even need to preach a sermon.
SPEAKER_00: You can just read Matthew 13 and you'll have this entire thing figured out because Jesus tells you what it means.
SPEAKER_00: But what fun would that be?
SPEAKER_00: So let's preach.
SPEAKER_00: When you get to the end of Matthew chapter 13 in verse 37, Jesus says that the one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: That's the sower.
SPEAKER_00: The sower is the son of man.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus's one of his favorite titles for himself is the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: So as we look at the parable, the sower is clearly the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And this begins the sowing of the kingdom of heaven throughout the rest of the Gospel of Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: So if you read Matthew 13 through 25, you are now going to see Jesus begin sowing the message of the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: And he goes out and he does that by sharing more parables, and he starts to amass a large gathering of people.
SPEAKER_00: He starts teaching about the kingdom, he's proclaiming the gospel, he spreads the word, and as the word spreads, it begins to grow up in many people's lives, and Jesus has a very large crowd following him by the end of the book of Matthew.
SPEAKER_00: Because what you see in this parable is that people respond to the spreading of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: When the kingdom of heaven is preached, people will respond to it.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is showing us that here, and then his life models that.
SPEAKER_00: Every time, every time, not sometime, but every single time the message of Jesus is preached, seeds are being scattered, and it does produce some kind of life.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we see here.
SPEAKER_00: The second character is the soil.
SPEAKER_00: The soil is unique because the soil is really the hearts of the people who hear the message of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And again, Jesus explains this in Matthew 13.
SPEAKER_00: If you get to Matthew 13, 19, Jesus says this about the hearers of the kingdom of about the message.
SPEAKER_00: When anyone hears this message, so that's the people, when anyone hears the message about the kingdom, and they do not understand it, the evil one has come and snatches away what was sown in their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: That's two important phrases there.
SPEAKER_00: When anyone hears the message, that means that that message that is being sown in their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: So every time the gospel is following or the kingdom of heaven is being spread, it does produce life.
SPEAKER_00: But here's how it produces life it's sown into the heart.
SPEAKER_00: It goes into the ears, through the mind, and down into the heart or soul of the individual, creating conviction of what is both true and what is both right.
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, you have the seed itself.
SPEAKER_00: The seed is obviously the message of the kingdom of heaven, but in Luke chapter 8, which is where you can also find this parable, Jesus calls this word about the kingdom of heaven the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: He says, the seed is the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 8, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: And so the word of God is truly anyone who takes the message of the kingdom of God, that's the seed, and they share it with anybody.
SPEAKER_00: So if you've ever shared a Bible verse with somebody, even on Facebook or something else, you have effectively spread the seed of God because that's the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And the word of God goes into the ears or through the mind if you read it and penetrates the heart to some degree.
SPEAKER_00: So if you've shared a Bible verse, if you've shared a personal story about Jesus has worked in your life with somebody else, if you've preached the actual gospel message and you laid out for them an understanding of what Jesus is really teaching, anytime you share truth, anytime you share what's called the Word of God, you are sowing seeds in somebody's hearts.
SPEAKER_00: So evangelism is more than simply a conversion conversation.
SPEAKER_00: It is the act of spreading the seed about the kingdom of God into people's hearts, sowing it in their hearts through conversation, through relationship, and through verbal witness of who Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this spring, if you go to any farmer around here, I'm sure they're starting to collect various bags of seed that will be delivered to them shortly.
SPEAKER_00: And when seed is in a bag, that seed is potential life.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: It's not life yet, it's potential life.
SPEAKER_00: And every seed has a very specific kind of life.
SPEAKER_00: What do you get when you plant a corn seed?
SPEAKER_00: That's not a trick question.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: What do you get when you plant a corn seed?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's right.
SPEAKER_00: What do you get when you plant a wheat seed?
SPEAKER_00: Right.
SPEAKER_00: Seeds have potential life, but they have a specific kind of life that they bring to the table.
SPEAKER_00: Not every seed is the same kind of seed, so the gospel has its own sort of potential life.
SPEAKER_00: It's eternal life, it's new life.
SPEAKER_00: It's a life that we are unable to attain in and of ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we plant the gospel, it's going to bring about something specific.
SPEAKER_00: But if we don't verbally witness to the person of Jesus Christ, that's like leaving the seed in the bag.
SPEAKER_00: Seed in a bag is simply potential life.
SPEAKER_00: It's not life yet.
SPEAKER_00: You actually have to do something with the seed.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to put it in the soil.
SPEAKER_00: And the miracle of life begins when the seed enters the soil.
SPEAKER_00: The moisture soaks in, the seed bursts through with roots, it takes anchor in the dirt, and it begins to sprout up all this new life.
SPEAKER_00: Because life begins when the seed leaves the bag and goes into the soil.
SPEAKER_00: When it's in the soil, life begins to emerge.
SPEAKER_00: And so if there is going to be any chance, and I mean any chance at all, for that seed to create life, it has to go in the soil.
SPEAKER_00: If there's any chance, and I mean any chance at all for an unbelieving world to place their faith in Jesus, we have to verbally witness the truth of Jesus Christ with these people.
SPEAKER_00: If you want any hope at all of seeing the world transformed, your family transformed, your neighbor transformed by the gospel, it has got to leave your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: It has got to go into their ears and be planted and sown in their hearts.
SPEAKER_00: This is the principle of the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: The message of the kingdom of heaven works this way.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, the message you have is the message of eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: The message you have, the message we have, is the message of complete renewal.
SPEAKER_00: And guess what springtime is?
SPEAKER_00: The season of renewal, the season of new life.
SPEAKER_00: Is there a better time of year to share the gospel than this particular season?
SPEAKER_00: Because all of earth shouts the reality that seeds planted bring about life, and the gospel message you preach will bring about life.
SPEAKER_00: But if we never share it, if we never invite someone to hear it, if we never speak the name of Jesus, then that seed will never produce life.
SPEAKER_00: So, friends, when we sow the gospel, and this church is a gospel-sowing church, when we sow the gospel, we sow it generously.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus is called to do: to sow the gospel generously, not to go through and plant one seed at a time, but to get out your big old Scots gospel spreader and just start bringing it around.
SPEAKER_00: Let people hear the message of Jesus profoundly.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the promise of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: What we reap, we will sow.
SPEAKER_00: If we want to see new life in Jesus, if we want our children to be transformed by the gospel, if we want our unbelieving parents to put their faith in Christ, if we want our neighbors who've been mad at us forever about our dog going onto their property to forgive you and come to Jesus, that's a very specific real life example, then you have got to sow the gospel generously every time you get, because we reap what we sow.
SPEAKER_00: You know, Galatians 6, 7 through 9 is a very powerful verse on this.
SPEAKER_00: It says, Do not be deceived.
SPEAKER_00: God cannot be mocked.
SPEAKER_00: A man reaps what he sows.
SPEAKER_00: I like how Paul says God cannot be mocked.
SPEAKER_00: And here's why he says that.
SPEAKER_00: But that won't work.
SPEAKER_00: The principle of life, the principle of the kingdom of heaven is that which you reap, you will sow.
SPEAKER_00: It happens in every aspect of your life.
SPEAKER_00: If you do bad things, you will reap bad consequences.
SPEAKER_00: Yes?
SPEAKER_00: May not be today, may not be tomorrow, but eventually, if you reap or if you sow a whole bunch of bad things, you're going to reap evil consequences.
SPEAKER_00: So I'll make it easy for you in a way that I believe Lancaster County people understand.
SPEAKER_00: If you sow laziness, you will not reap provision.
SPEAKER_00: That's how this works.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to Proverbs, what Proverbs says about this.
SPEAKER_00: A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands, and what happens?
SPEAKER_00: Poverty comes on you like a thief, and scarcity like an armed man.
SPEAKER_00: Now, how many of you growing up here had parents that told you you have to be a hard worker?
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: People are like, they didn't just tell me, they beat me into it.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: You've got to be a hard worker.
SPEAKER_00: Why do you gotta be a hard worker?
SPEAKER_00: Because you reap what you sow.
SPEAKER_00: If you are lazy, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: You will not sow provision or at least abundant provision.
SPEAKER_00: But when you work hard, what do you reap?
SPEAKER_00: You reap provision.
SPEAKER_00: That is a fact of life, and it works in every single category of life, whether it's doing yard work or working in a Fortune 500 company.
SPEAKER_00: If you work hard, you will reap opportunity and you will reap provision.
SPEAKER_00: If the church wants to see new life in Jesus Christ, then we will work hard to sow the gospel of Jesus Christ in the lives of people in our life and in our community.
SPEAKER_00: Because we cannot reap a gospel harvest if we have not done the hard work of planting the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So that's what we do.
SPEAKER_00: We do the hard work of planting the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we do, church.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's the promise of Scripture, 2 Corinthians 9, 6.
SPEAKER_00: The point is this whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.
SPEAKER_00: Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
SPEAKER_00: So if we want to continue to see many people come into the kingdom, we will sow bountifully.
SPEAKER_00: We will spread the gospel here, there, and everywhere as long as the Lord has breath in our lungs, because the size of the harvest is connected to the generosity of our sowing.
SPEAKER_00: And friends, I want to see people come into the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: My heart is that lives would be transformed by the gospel that has changed my life.
SPEAKER_00: And every light bulb on this Jesus sign behind me is a testimony to the hard work of sowing and the new life we're reaping in the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't know, every one of those light bulbs represents somebody who since July 31st, or sorry, July 1st, has placed their faith in Jesus for the first time.
SPEAKER_00: Because you, church, have done the hard work of sowing the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And I keep banging that drum because if we lever let up on preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, we will stop seeing a bountiful harvest in the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And that would be so sad to me, and it'd be so sad to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He died for the advancement of the church and the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And so that brings us to our own personal reality of evangelism.
SPEAKER_00: I think evangelism for the last 50 years has been taught in a way that puts the impetus of evangelism entirely on the individual.
SPEAKER_00: You need to go out, you need to bring somebody to a point of conversion, you gotta debate them into the kingdom, you gotta have all the apologetics, you gotta have all the right stuff figured out before you walk into the conversation about the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: I really think that those trainings are good, but it created a misconception about how evangelism actually works, how we really sow the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Now I've heard said here, and various online statistics will tell you, that 95% of Christians will never lead someone to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's 95%.
SPEAKER_00: And uh I don't know where they get that statistic.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody seems to have actually good research on this.
SPEAKER_00: It's just often quoted to the point where it's kind of become fake news, but it's real enough that we all believe it.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's this thing here that's repeated, repeated, repeated.
SPEAKER_00: And if that's the case, then the 5% of us who sow the gospel have done a really good job.
SPEAKER_00: Mike a really good job.
SPEAKER_00: But there's no way that what we experience today is a result of just 5% of people evangelizing the friends and neighbors around them.
SPEAKER_00: No, everyone is a sower of the gospel because you're simply sowing the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: It does not matter if you get somebody to the point of the conversion moment.
SPEAKER_00: At some point in time in their life, you spoke truth.
SPEAKER_00: You spoke the name of Jesus, you lived a life of example that showed that you reap what you sow.
SPEAKER_00: So by following Christ, you reap the benefits of being a follower of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And people around you see that, they see a life transformed, they see a life blessing.
SPEAKER_00: And they start to ask questions, such as, why are you different?
SPEAKER_00: What makes your life so uniquely set apart from the rest of the world in which we live?
SPEAKER_00: And then you speak truth to that.
SPEAKER_00: So your whole life is an evangelistic message.
SPEAKER_00: Everything you say, everything you do, every conversation you have, every scripture verse you share, you're sowing the seed of the kingdom of heaven in somebody's heart.
SPEAKER_00: And eventually somebody may come to a position where their faith grows and it blooms into this 30, 60, 100fold fruit, and they enter the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: But not every heart that you sow into will produce the same fruit, because the condition of the soil is the condition of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to Luke chapter 8, verses 11 through 15.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is explaining the parable.
SPEAKER_00: Now the parable is this the seed is the word of God, and the ones along the path are those who have heard, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And the ones on the rock are those who or the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy, but these have no root.
SPEAKER_00: They believe for a while, and in time of testing they fall away.
SPEAKER_00: And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they're choked out by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature.
SPEAKER_00: And as for that in 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: Now, observationally, the seed that produces the most fruit landed in prepared soil.
SPEAKER_00: It landed in soil without thorns, without weeds, without rocks, where the seed could grow deep and produce life.
SPEAKER_00: That means that that heart, if it was truly a field, has been plowed.
SPEAKER_00: Somebody took time to condition the heart to receive the message of the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it was plowed, turned, cleared, it was made ready for planting.
SPEAKER_00: So everything you do with other people in your life who do not believe in Jesus, everything you're doing with them, while you're with them, loving them, caring them, serving them, being a part of their life, you are conditioning the soil of their heart to receive the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we get to partner with Jesus in.
SPEAKER_00: We are helping to condition the soil of the heart.
SPEAKER_00: So the nonverbal witness of the gospel, while the verbal witness is the planting of the seed, the nonverbal witness is the conditioning of the soil.
SPEAKER_00: Now we have some relationships in our life, I'm sure, that are hard, difficult.
SPEAKER_00: And probably, if you were to pin it, those people also aren't followers of Jesus or aren't really mature followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And they're they're hard.
SPEAKER_00: You're called to love them.
SPEAKER_00: Amy and I have people like that in our life.
SPEAKER_00: We call them extra grace required individuals.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: EGR for short.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I got this person in my life.
SPEAKER_00: They're a little EGR, but hey.
SPEAKER_00: Extra grace required.
SPEAKER_00: You step into relationship, even though it's not convenient, even though it is difficult and frustrating and emotionally challenging, and you love them and you serve them in the way Jesus would, you care for them the way Jesus would, you listen to them the way Jesus would.
SPEAKER_00: You walk with them the way Jesus would, so that their heart, the hardness of this person, begins to soften and be prepared to receive the gospel message.
SPEAKER_00: We use the grace of Jesus to love people well to help soften the condition of their heart.
SPEAKER_00: Now the heart is this not neutral thing, okay?
SPEAKER_00: It moves and it sways and it kind of follows the whims and the wants of whatever the will is.
SPEAKER_00: But when the heart, if we know the heart could be moved, then the heart could be moved in a couple different directions.
SPEAKER_00: The heart can definitely be hardened, the heart can also be rocky and thorny, and the heart can be softened.
SPEAKER_00: We see this in the parable, there's different kinds, but the heart could be changed.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at why the heart can be hard.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah 17, 9 tells us this.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever seen that in your own life?
SPEAKER_00: There's what you know to be true, there's what you want to be true.
SPEAKER_00: And so your heart just kind of, oh, yeah, I'm gonna walk in this direction because it feels good, it sounds good, it's what I want to do, and all of a sudden this the heart drifted away from what was really true and started to believe a lie.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's a lie that is good for you mentally or emotionally, maybe a lie that's hurtful for you mentally or emotionally.
SPEAKER_00: Either way, all lies are destructive, but it begins to harden the heart towards what is actually true.
SPEAKER_00: It can justify sin, it can believe lies about what Scripture teaches, it can believe lies about God.
SPEAKER_00: And when the heart is really hard and it's believed a lot of lies, it's like that hard path.
SPEAKER_00: You sprinkle the seed on there, and man, it's going nowhere.
SPEAKER_00: It's just a heart deeply embedded with lies.
SPEAKER_00: The heart can also be distracted, and this is true for many of us.
SPEAKER_00: We don't all have hard hearts, but many of us have distracted hearts, where we look at the things of the world going on and we start to have anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: We start to have worry.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you in the last week have been watching everything going on with Iran?
SPEAKER_00: You can't really avoid the news.
SPEAKER_00: We have uh unique situation happening around the world.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody really knows exactly what the next step is going to be, but it's produced all kinds of anxiety and trouble in the markets.
SPEAKER_00: If you're somebody who follows stock markets, oil's jumping through the roof, just drive out of here and go to sheets.
SPEAKER_00: Gas is up by 60 cents.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: There's real worries in the world, and the heart can get distracted by all of these worries, and so we start to manifest and focus on the worries, therefore the kingdom of heaven doesn't take root the way it needs to, as the worries of life, the concerns in pursuit of wealth, the desires of this world can start to choke out the life of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what is also true?
SPEAKER_00: Hearts can also believe.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to Romans 10:10.
SPEAKER_00: For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with your mouth you profess your faith and you are saved.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, the heart can believe.
SPEAKER_00: That's the most important truth in this entire passage.
SPEAKER_00: A heart, while it can be hard, and a heart while it can get distracted, a heart can believe.
SPEAKER_00: And here's where belief comes from.
SPEAKER_00: Belief is a gift, it is birthed in your heart through the planting of the kingdom of the seed of God, but it's a gift of God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to Acts chapter 14, or chapter 16, verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: It's talking about the Lord and a woman's heart.
SPEAKER_00: It says, the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.
SPEAKER_00: The message that Paul was preaching was the message of the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: A heart can believe when the Lord opens the heart and it produces faith.
SPEAKER_00: And so before we go planting the seed, we have to get on our knees and beg God to do a miracle in the heart of the people that we want to sow the gospel in.
SPEAKER_00: Lord God Almighty, would you soften the heart of even the most hardest person I know?
SPEAKER_00: Would you soften the heart of that person that is so difficult in my life?
SPEAKER_00: I don't even like them, but for the sake of the gospel, God, would you give me a heart to love them and preach the truth into a heart that's prepared to receive the gospel?
SPEAKER_00: So that that person who was once my enemy is now my brother and sister in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We have to get on our knees because only God can soften hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Only God can change hearts.
SPEAKER_00: I can't do any of that.
SPEAKER_00: I am not a good enough debater.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a good enough teacher.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a good enough explainer of the Bible to actually change the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Only God can change someone's heart.
SPEAKER_00: And David understood this.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 51, 10.
SPEAKER_00: That's one of my favorite verses.
SPEAKER_00: Create in me a clean heart, O God.
SPEAKER_00: Renew a right spirit within me.
SPEAKER_00: God is the one who has the power to do what you can't do, because he has sovereignty and authority over the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And our hearts are under the authority of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: So we pray and ask and plead the Lord Almighty to soften the hearts to prepare the soil in advance that they might hear the truth of what is going to be preached.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's the good news.
SPEAKER_00: When you read the parable, the sower and the seed, three out of four hearts are capable of receiving the seed of the gospel message.
SPEAKER_00: 75%.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's tempting to think that, well, the seed never went on the hard path.
SPEAKER_00: There's three bad soils and one good one.
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00: There are three types of soil that produce life.
SPEAKER_00: That's really the point.
SPEAKER_00: The quality of that life is dependent on the soil, but three types of soil can produce life.
SPEAKER_00: And so if my math is right, then the odds are in my favor that when I preach the message of the kingdom of heaven, life will be produced.
SPEAKER_00: That's an encouraging word for the follower of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because yes, we pray for God to soften hearts, but God's already told you 75% of the hearts are able to produce life.
SPEAKER_00: And so we spread the gospel message generously, recognizing that there will be life.
SPEAKER_00: That life may not come into full bloom, that life may spring up and be very shallow.
SPEAKER_00: But when that person walks into relationship with other Christians, what's our responsibility?
SPEAKER_00: Help condition the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Continue to pluck out the rocks, continue to weed the bed, help that person's faith have room to grow, to flourish, and become something that produces life and life eternal.
SPEAKER_00: Now, while we can participate in the soil conditioning and we can participate in the spreading of the seed, here's what we have no power over.
SPEAKER_00: You ready?
SPEAKER_00: We have no power over whether or not somebody actually believes.
SPEAKER_00: Only God gives life.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: Only God gives life.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to Paul, 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.
SPEAKER_00: Where does life, where does growth come from?
SPEAKER_00: It comes from the Lord and from the Lord only.
SPEAKER_00: You simply cannot in your own strength bring anybody into the kingdom of heaven, no matter how hard you try.
SPEAKER_00: But you can faithfully spread the seed, you can faithfully pray for God to soften hearts, and you can faithfully expect that three out of four hearts will produce life, because God brings life wherever the gospel is spread.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, I deeply believe that Jesus wants many people to come into the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Himself is the one who has power over life and death.
SPEAKER_00: You know the story of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus went to the cross where he willingly died.
SPEAKER_00: And he died on that cross because he wanted to ensure that the death penalty was paid for everybody who's ever sinned.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've ever sinned at all, you are under the death penalty of God.
SPEAKER_00: You will spend eternity apart from him.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the good news of the kingdom of heaven that Jesus Christ died so that you don't have to.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we preach.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, I laid down my life and I take it up again.
SPEAKER_00: In just a few weeks, we have Easter Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: I almost tripped.
SPEAKER_00: In just a few weeks, we have Easter Sundays.
SPEAKER_00: Coming up in just what, three, four weeks now?
SPEAKER_00: April or April 5th.
SPEAKER_00: Easter Sunday is resurrection Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And so while every other day we preach Christ crucified and risen, on Easter Sunday we celebrate the resurrection because Jesus said, I lay down my life, but I take up my life.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus rose from the dead, he is the one who has power over life and death.
SPEAKER_00: So who gives life?
SPEAKER_00: Only God gives life.
SPEAKER_00: Who gives life?
SPEAKER_00: Only Jesus gives life.
SPEAKER_00: How do you get life?
SPEAKER_00: By placing your faith in Jesus and letting your heart believe.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has come to give life and life to the full, church.
SPEAKER_00: And here's the thing when you walked in this morning, on every one of your seats, there was this little thing called Who's Your One.
SPEAKER_00: There's Who's Your One?
SPEAKER_00: And on the front side of that document, there's a thing called prayer points.
SPEAKER_00: These are ways to pray that God would work in advance to soften the hearts of men and women towards the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Because we can't change hearts, only God can.
SPEAKER_00: So we partner with Him in prayer, diligently praying weeks in advance that God would soften people's hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Because God changes hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And on the back, there's a bunch of blank spaces.
SPEAKER_00: Those are spaces for you to write the names of people that you want to see come into salvation with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Names of people that you want to invite to come hear the gospel message preached here at Grace Church on April 5th.
SPEAKER_00: To be a part of co-laboring with God four weeks in advance to condition the soil of their heart so that when they're here, they hear the gospel message preached when life might come into fruition.
SPEAKER_00: But you have a role to play in this.
SPEAKER_00: If we're going to reap a generous harvest, we must sow the gospel generously, which means we have to be hard, diligent workers in sowing the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And so, church, I have a commission from Jesus Himself.
SPEAKER_00: You have a commission from Jesus Himself to go out and to make disciples.
SPEAKER_00: We make disciples by sowing the gospel, and I'm imploring you, I'm encouraging you, and I'm partnering with you.
SPEAKER_00: Let us bring the message of hope in Jesus to our community.
SPEAKER_00: Can we do that?
SPEAKER_00: Church, come on now.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's daylight saving.
SPEAKER_00: Give me something.
SPEAKER_00: We can do that.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that you might be a little scared.
SPEAKER_00: Do not be afraid.
SPEAKER_00: It's the most repeated commandment in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: This is the Lord's work.
SPEAKER_00: You don't gotta save anybody, it's his responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: You simply have to sow the gospel through invitation and through speaking the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, thank you so much for how you have equipped us to be partners with you in sowing the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we can't create new life, but we can help partner with you in that process.
SPEAKER_00: So, Jesus, I ask this that you would remove the rocks, that you would clear the thorns, that you would turn the soil of many hearts, that you would prepare them far in advance to receive the gospel message of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So that when that seed finally hits, it gives birth to saving life.
SPEAKER_00: And we ask all of that in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.