SPEAKER_00 1:12

I'd like to look in the Word of God here in the Mark. I'd like to look at a portion of scripture that I trust we're all fairly familiar with. Mark chapter 4. The thought that I have on my mind this morning is that of the parable that is often referred to as the parable of the sower. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in his most perfect and profound teaching, would be standing in a ship on the side of the Sea of Galilee for, we're like, why would he do that? Why would he set up the scene that way? Well, it's because as we read through the narrative of what happened here, the series of events, he had just healed a multitude of people. He had been in the midst of a multitude of people, and they were a multitude of sicknesses and diverse issues that they had. You can start to imagine the different things that they were struggling with, from physical ailments to uh to sicknesses to uh being um overcome with said like spirits that he would uh cast out of them. I mean, he just absolutely poured blessings on a multitude of people, and they just would flock to him. And they would bring their issues, and others would would bring loved ones to him. And I could just imagine uh their mindset, Brother Bobby, as they were like, we just got to get to him. That he that's the one, that's our deliverer. And so the the scene, the setting, the feeling that was around it was was very much uh inward towards Christ and what he could do, what he did do. And he in right in this setting, he, as to not be uh thronged upon, as it said, um by this multitude of people, he kind of put himself off onto a ship so that he can have some space. I think about it this way, kind of have some space so that he can he can talk to them. Instead of kind of being uh the word that kind of comes to mind is kind of mobbed by them. And in like in a way of uh desiring to be around him. Anyway, that's kind of where we see ourselves in in Matthew chapter 4. And we could also see this same account of this parable of the sower in both Matthew and also Luke, and it's good. This is the wonderful blessing we have in God's word and throughout the synoptic gospels, is you can go and it's oftentimes an event will happen, uh, it's recorded in different gospel accounts, and it's good if you're studying a particular thing to line up all of those places that you find them, because they never contradict one another. They might seem like they contradict one another, but it's not. It's just seeing the same event from a different perspective. Instead of everybody looking at the same object from the front or whatever, it's like seeing it from the side and the side and the front. And it gives it gives you more dimension to what actually happened. But I will say, with all certainty, it never contradicts one another. It just gives brighter, more glorious detail as to what it is. But there's some wording here in Mark that um I feel led to kind of use this as a launching point. This parable, as he stands there on the ship, uh trust with his disciples, and he's teaching the multitude that is right there on the shore. I mean, they're just right up as close as they can get, and they are ready to hear his teachings, ready to hear his words. Because think about what they had just experienced. This is a people that desire to be close and nigh unto him, and I believe that they're ready to hear what he has to say. Mark chapter 4. And he began again to teach by the sea side, and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea, and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land, and he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, Hearken, behold, there went out a sower to sow. And it came to pass as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, there it had not much earth, and immediately it sprung up. Because it had no depth of earth, when um but when the sun was up, it was scorched, and because it had no root, it weathered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And others fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased, and brought forth, and some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred. And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. That's the lesson that the multitude heard. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, the Son of God, with all wisdom and all of perfection. And his words weren't mixed and tangled and jumbled as oftentimes mine are. When I try to explain something, it's just like we we're trying to understand what you're having to say, but that is a complete mess. That's not the words of Jesus Christ. His words aren't lacking, they're not short, they're not, they're they're perfect words. This is the perfect lesson. And he is teaching it at the right time and to the right audience. I mean, it's just like timing's right on. But you think about maybe from their perspective, maybe kind of put yourself into their shoes and kind of where they where they were. They had just seen miracles, literal miracles, and had experienced it. Maybe they had witnessed it. Maybe they had, it had been them who had been healed by his great power. And here he is standing in front of us, about to teach us and tell us something. And he stands up and talks about farming. That's strange. That's strange. That's mysterious that he would do such a thing, that that's what he would be sharing to the multitude in front of him, was drawing their minds to a picture that that was not uncommon. They understood farming. I would I would go so far as to say, um, Sister Shannon, that they understood farming a lot more than we do. Like, I know most of the people in here, I know your experiences, and I don't think there's any like real like farmers. There might be some gardeners amongst us, but nobody that makes a living in those things. I certainly don't. What I understand is what I've heard people talk about. It hasn't been uh something, I mean, we live in Texas, so we see a lot of uh crops. We drive down the highways and we sit, we look uh we look along the sides of the roads, and we uh having no experience can look out there and be like, hey, that crop's doing well. Or sometimes in those hot, hot, drought, drought summers, you're like, that crop is not doing well. Like that's kind of like the extent of my understanding. Actually, I'll share this. I'm really thankful uh to have the opportunity to serve over at Waco Primitive Baptist Church. And if y'all are ever in the Waco area and you want a place to go on Sunday, those people are, they would love to have you. It'll be a blessing for you. But I don't know if you know that's that church, right outside of that church is a giant open field, and it is a field that they grow crops. And since we're there once every other month, we have the blessing of watching the seasons, like the phases, right? Every two months. And sometimes we'll go by there, and it is a blank field, but it's maybe been tilled up. And we're like, they're done with that old crop, the old yield, and now it's time they're getting the field ready to go again. Two months later, we come by and we're starting to see the green start to come up. And that's exciting for us to see that, like right there. We're seeing new growth, and it's all laid out so perfectly, like in an array, and it's all growing up, it's not spotty, like a whole bunch over here, nothing, and a whole bunch of it's perfectly spread out, and that's by design, right? And then later on, you see the full corn is all grown up and it's got the little thingies on top, and and you can tell there's actually corn, like it's what he's talking about, fruit. It's the food. It's the it's the whole it's the whole point of the crop, is that corn, that ear of corn. Like, that's the whole point. It's not the leaves. They might have a benefit to the leaves, I don't know what it is. Uh well, I can think of one. Um, but it's the corn, it's the fruit, right? That's why they do it. Okay? And we get to see those phases. So that's the extent of my understanding, right? And so on and so forth. These people understood crops. They understood what a farmer, like a sower, they understood the whole thing. They had seen it. They were in an area around Galilee where it was the place. There was a, it happened all around them. So they understood what it when he was using this illustration of what a sower would do and what they would witness. There might have been a sower in a field really close to where he was teaching this lesson. I don't know. But a sower, one who I trust they were either workers in the field or that was their field, would reach into a leather pouch and grab a handful of seeds and would, with great skill and with great purpose, would scatter those seeds in a perfect, like in a way that just kind of spread with great skill out. But that was a broadcast. That's why they call it broadcast, because you're casting in a broad way, and it would land, and they would do that as they walk, and they would with with um the experience of doing it to make it even, make it spread, and so that at the end of the day, at the end of all that work of working the field and sowing the seeds and and and praying that it would be watered upon and all that, that all after all that time, they would see what we get to see at Waco growth and it'd be spread out. It's the same thing for them as what they witnessed, is what we get to witness in our observation. You're still talking about farming. So, why does this matter? Why was this lesson so important that Christ would take this opportunity to teach this perfect lesson with these perfect words, and his disciples would ask that question. They were with him. The multitude heard the lesson, they heard the scene that he drew their minds to, and the disciples, with great curiosity, in essence, said, Sister Pam, tell us what you're talking about. If you allow me to kind of summarize it that way, tell me what you're talking about. We know you're talking about something deeper, more uh more profound than just farming. What are you pointing to in this parable? What is this parable supposed to teach or to illustrate? And he, with his great uh kindness and love, would teach them what the thing stood for. And that's what I trust we'll try to get to. And uh kind of try to drill it down to how um we can take away from this. And he would, Jesus Christ would also explain that he is teaching in parables about something that is on a higher plane and more a spiritual plane, that had a greater lesson than just um how to cast seed. That it was a mystery. That this mystery, the mysteries of God are even before the foundation of the world, and they're meant to give explanation and revelation to those that have ears to hear. That's how he would wrap this up is he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. That tells me there's a type of, there is an individual that has ears, not so much natural ears, but spiritual ears. Faith. Spiritual insight to see the things of God. And then there's another uh state that an individual could be in, and that's not having spiritual ears to hear. And it stays a mystery to them unless God reveals it to them. It's meant to be a mystery unless he opens it up, unless he reveals what it means. But right here, he would explain this great teaching to his disciples, and um, aren't you thankful this morning that he has explained it, he's explaining it to us? That he's able to show us what these things mean. Okay. So in that lesson, what he hits on is there's four different categories of ground. Four categories of ground. There is the first ground, which is by the wayside. This one is, you think about, I'm thinking about that, that field outside of Waco, but wherever your mind draws you to, the field is tilled up, the seed is, it's intended to take the broadcast seed, and growth is supposed to happen. But part of this field has a pathway that the people would walk on. And if you walk on tilled dirt and everybody kind of takes that same path, what happens to the ground? It becomes compacted. And they're supposed to kind of all use that same pathway, and in essence, what happens is it kind of becomes a road. Kind of a almost not a purposely paved road, but that's what happens if you trample a tilled road long enough, it will become a hard, kind of crusted over ground. Right? And that was kind of like their pathways that they were to walk on. Okay. The second ground is that of it's tilled ground, it's soft ground on top, but underneath, about I don't know, we can we can call it six, eight inches or so. Like underneath the ground, you would hit stone. Like there's rock that it hits. Actually, I think about uh Sister Heather, when we lived in Leander in Georgetown area, that is like limestone right underneath. And anytime we tried to plant a plant, we would go to digging, and I mean we would, and it's so frustrating because you want to, you need you have this big pot that you need to plant, and if you hit that, guess what's ahead of you? A lot of hard work. Right? You got to work to knock that rock out and get it out of the way so that you can get down and it's all good dirt instead of a little bit of good dirt, and then just hard rock underneath. That's not good. Right? This second ground is the stony ground, and it is such that there's some good, nice dirt on top, but underneath hard rock, right? That's out there in the field as well. And these farmers were tasked with getting the rocks out, so the more ground in the field that didn't have rocks in it, the more growth, good growth that would happen. Again, that's some hard work. The third kind of ground that he talks about is the thorny ground. Thorny ground. Another way to think about thorns or thorny ground, brother Anderson, is that of weeds. There's weeds in the field, there's weeds in the area. And just like our flower garden that we're working on yesterday, do you want weeds where the good plants are? No. So just let them kind of mix together. No, purposefully, get the weeds out, get the thorns out. They don't belong there. It's like a weedy, thorny ground. That's another part of where a mine can be, is uh that's another area where seeds might end up. And then lastly, he talks about the good ground. And the good ground is not trampled on, doesn't have stones underneath, and doesn't have weeds in it. It's just what? Good tilled soil. Good tilled soil. Those are the four grounds he talks about. Those are the four grounds. Okay? And then one other element before we go into the explanation Christ gives to us. One of them was considered good ground, which means the other three were what? Not good ground. Not the kind you would desire as a sower of seeds, as a farmer who's gonna be out there trying to do your job. Those are ground, none, no three are good. One of them is good. And the good ground can bring forth thirtyfold, sixtyfold, or hundredfold is what he talks about. Now, I want to draw your mind to uh uh there, what they were hearing as they stood up by the seaside listening to Jesus uh teach this lesson. When he got to good ground and talked about yielding fruit and yielding fruit by 30fold and sixtyfold and hundredfold, I tell you, that is remarkable return. They understood return. They understood that the average, this is what I've kind of researched was the average return for those that would sow seeds in an actual field that would grow crops was 7.5 fold. Was considered a good average, like that that's what you would hope for. Could it be less than that? Oh yeah, it could be less than that. But 7.5 was a really good return. 10%, you had an amazing yield. An amazing, this was a great year. The Lord truly bought with tenfold. That means for every uh every seed or so, it would bring forth ten times that amount. That's great growth. So when he would say that good ground would bring forth 30fold, that didn't happen. Like you, if your actual crop in your work in your field brought forth 30fold, you'd be the talk of the town. Right? That's a big deal. 30fold. That's unbelievable. And then he says, 60fold? Now you're just you're imagining things. But he didn't stop at 60. He goes, hundredfold? That's unnatural. That is otherworldly. That is super like that. Unbelievable. Well, Christ said it, that it could bring forth 30, yes, 60, yes, and even hundredfold. But again, is he talking about natural farmers throwing natural seed in a naturally till field? No. He's going much higher with what he's pointing to, what he's teaching. And that's what he's gonna drive at. He's talking about not something that's common, he's talking about something that's uncommon, not something that's natural, but something that's supernatural. Something that has to do with God and spiritual things. He's not talking about material things, he's talking about spiritual things. And that's what he's gonna teach them. And I'm telling you, right now, brothers and sisters, we are um so blessed to be um in a state where God can bring forth 30-fold in your life, can bring forth sixty-fold and hundredfold in your life with what he is talking about here. That's the kind of God, one that goes exceedingly abundantly above what the natural yield would say, but he would bring forth supernatural um returns and yield in the fields of our hearts, in our spiritual lives, and in the lives of other people that were around and in and above all those things, glory to him who deserves all the glory. And then the Christ would teach his disciples right here what he's talking about, why he took that opportunity to talk about farming and why it matters to us. And he said unto them, verse 13, and said unto them, Know ye not this parable, and how then will ye know all parables? The sower soweth the word. So right there, we don't have to guess, we don't have to argue, Brother Bobby, on what the sower is. What's the sower in this parable? It's the word, right? It's the word. And these are they by the wayside, where the word is sown. So the wayside, again, take our minds back to that path that's been walked a lot and trodden down and become hard as concrete in a seed that got broadcast and it landed on that pathway. This is what he's talking about. Right? The word goes out, the sower and the seed goes out, and it lands on the wayside. Where the word is sown, but when they had heard it, Satan cometh immediately and take away the word that was sown. In their hearts. So right there, he talks about how, first off, the seed is sown, the word is sown, and it lands, and where it lands is the heart. The heart. So he's not talking about dirt, he's talking about heart. So right now we have to guess who the sower is, what the sower is, that's the seed. It's the word. And the ground is the heart. And the wayside or the path heart is one that is depicted as compacted and pushed down and crusted over and callused over. It's hardened. The soil is hardened. The heart is hardened. And that is what he is driving at. Is that there is a ground, your heart. Every time the ground is going to be the heart. If the heart has become hardened or compacted, that is like a barrier. It's something that it's not going to penetrate. When the word, I'm going to say this. Let's give a connection with also what the word is, the way we're thinking about it. It might not only be this, but for argument's sake, the word here is I think about the preached word of God specifically. I think it matters also with the spoken word, with with the written word. I'm talking about the gospel being preached. Gospel being broadcast. And that's what a preacher does. That's what the minister of God does, is he stands in the reliance on the Lord delivering, and he takes not his words, but God's words, his word, the word, and he takes it, and with the Lord's blessing, he does what? Broadcast it. I don't, Brother Paul, I don't know what you need. You might not even know what you need, but the Lord knows exactly what you stand in need of. And that seed, it's not, I've got a brother Paul's seed and a brother Lloyd seed. I've got, we've just got God's word. And when the when we broadcast it, when we attempt to broadcast it, we're just doing the Lord's work of spreading out his word. And God, by his miracle, will take that same seed, that same word, and apply it to your ground, wherever it is, and it'll bring forth a return, a great return by him. He knows exactly what you need, and he can make that same seed, that same spoken word, land exactly, and it all grows up the same way. That's a miracle. That's an absolute remarkable miracle that that's the way the Lord operates. But it's broadcast, but man, there is a type of heart. There's a situation, there's a place where my heart can be, and that is one of a hard, crusted over, wayside kind of heart. I'll on my onset say this, and some would disagree with this uh position. I don't believe that this, the four different grounds are four different kinds of people. I don't believe that. From my own experience, I believe that I can be, my heart can be, any four of these kind of hearts. Any four of these kind of ground. It can be any of them. It's the same dirt. It's just, is there something in the dirt that shouldn't be there, or is there not? Has the dirt been trampled down or is it like tilled up? My heart has been, all four of these at different times. I have entered into a worship service to where my heart was hardened. My heart had been trampled down by the temptations of Satan, and I had, and I'm in those things, and my heart says, Not today. The beautiful words are being uh broadcast by the man of God preaching in faithful deliverance of his word. And guess what? Other people around me in the congregation are weeping tears of joy and rejoicing with the Lord and what he's given him, and I'm just sitting there like not today. My walls are up, my heart is hardened, I am wayside heart. And the the seed comes, boop, just bounces right off my heart. And it doesn't land, and you know what it'll bring forth? No fruit. Not today, not that message. That same message that had the potential. There was nothing wrong with the seed. There was nothing wrong with the seed. There was nothing wrong with the sower casting, the word being cast and sown to me. I heard it. I heard it. The only problem with that situation when my heart was hardened under the sound of that gospel, under those words, it wasn't that man's fault. It was my fault. It's because my heart had become hardened that day in that time. I would even say, I believe under the same sermon, under the same service, you could be multiple of these things. Right? You can be a hardened heart, and the Lord soften your heart, and then you become good ground. That's how I see it. Okay? So that's that first heart is the wayside. Hard trodden down. And then he goes on to say, and these are they likewise, which are sown on stony ground, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness, and have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time. Afterward, when affliction and persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended. Okay, so this fits. Someone's uh a farmer who knows, like knows their craft, they would understand the the explanation of what happens in this. I think my brother, who works in an agrarian thing, and he could talk about what happens with germination and kind of bore me on it, but um, he would be able to explain what's actually happening here on a scientific scientific level. But let's just say this even from observation, it would ring true. What happens with stony ground is that seed that is landed in what was a tilled, but it not very much dirt until you hit rock. It would land in the dirt, it would start to germinate or start to do its thing, it would be seeking water, it would be seeking nutrients, and it would, the roots would start going down the way the way it's supposed to go, and then all of a sudden it would hit the rock. And then it now it's starting to panic, and now it's starting to uh trying to survive because it's it's it's the roots are starting to go down, it's gonna start doing its thing. When it hits that rock, it's it the the the seed kind of panics and it goes upward instead, trying to survive, and it gets out and quickly it sprouts up real quick. And from an observation, it's like, whoa, that seed came up quick and it came up big. But because um the moisture isn't down here where it's supposed to be, it's actually up here on the top part. The sun comes and pulls all the water out of it, dead. And that that's not a successful growth. And will it bring forth any fruit?

unknown 30:43

None.

SPEAKER_00 30:43

It won't ever get to that point, it will not get to the point to where it can bring forth fruit. So the first uh type of heart can be um on a wayside, it's hard. Nope, no growth, no fruit. That second one, growth, but no fruit, and the whole point is fruit. The whole point is the yield. That's why you do it, right? So that's what it's saying. So, how does that matter for for us? How can my heart be like a like a like a stony ground kind of heart? Well, an individual can rejoice in the hearing of the sweet gospel of grace, to hear the truths in God's word, whether they be the message of you are saved by your Almighty Savior on the cross of Calvary for you, that he chose you before the foundation of the world, that he predestinated you to heaven's pure world at the end of at the end of all time. That he, those are things that bring great joy and rejoicing, and that is like springing up, and we're there's enthusiasm behind hearing those things. And I'm like, in that moment, I'm like, yes, that's exactly it. I I there's great excitement in hearing those things. That's that quick springing up. But when it comes down to a little bit later, like time goes by a little bit, what he lands with here, what he what he explains here is afterward. That's the problem. It's the afterword. It's not the initial excitement, the initial uh rejoicing in hearing that, it's the afterward. Afterward, when affliction and persecution ariseth for the word's sake. Okay, that's that's where it goes sideways. That's where uh the seed's purpose in the heart is stopped or like thwarted of what it's supposed to do. How can that happen? Well, you can be hearing and rejoicing in the sound of the gospel, and then um it could even be days later, months later, that the affliction comes. It could be judgment of others, it can be whatever. I'm there's a lot of things that could fill this in. Um, it could be physical affliction in the pew. You're hearing these things, and then maybe you start to ache or something, then your mind is drawn away from those things, and then you lose the rejoicing. There's all kinds of scenarios in which that's the case, but the point is that the Lord Jesus Christ teaches that as that's a kind of heart, is that there are things that can stop or um can be a hidden obstacle for you. That you don't see it, but it's there. It's a hidden obstacle. It's something that that's um it's under the surface, it's something that's that can keep you, can keep you from having that those roots go down where they're supposed to be and get the nutrients in the water that's supposed to be there. Okay. It could be the fact of like self-preservation. I think that that kind of speaks to it. It's thinking these things are wonderful, they sound so good, but I must preserve myself. Uh if this is true, and then uh the Lord has called me to do this particular work and uh live this particular way, um that means I'm gonna have to, this is what my life would look like. If that's true, then I'm gonna have to do this or do that, and my life is going to now look like something different, and that scares me. And so at that point, then the wall goes up. It was fine in hearing it, it sounded beautiful, but then you're like, oh, but my life is gonna have to change in these ways. Wall. That's that hidden obstacle. You didn't see it coming when you were listening to it. You you you were enjoying hearing it, it sounded beautiful. You were just hidden obstacle. That means my life is going to look different. I'm gonna have to start talking to people different. I'm gonna have to start reacting and not uh um returning returning a punch, as it were. Right? I'm gonna have to change, and I'm that scares me. That that's that's uncomfortable. Let me ask you, does that resonate with you at all? Because for me, it does. You get into some of those more um those deeper things, and I hear them, and I'm like, I know it's true because God, God's word says it's true, but I haven't been living that way. I haven't been following that to a T, and and I want to commit to God fully, but man, that means I'm gonna have to change. Hidden obstacle, right? Stony ground. That's where that's where that beautiful lesson, that beautiful seed that could take root and have a hundredfold, it have great fruit. I'm the problem. My heart's the problem. Jesus Christ, our Lord, gives us what to do with that hidden rock. He tells us how to address it. Just as a farmer, if you are, if you landed some seed on and they sprung up real quick, but then they died, you're like, ooh, what's next? Oh, let's just not sow there anymore. No, that's not how they're gonna do it. They sowed some seed over here and it sprung up, they died quickly. They're like, there's some rocks there. There's some hidden rocks there. I know because of the results of that seed that should have grown, but it didn't. Time to get to digging. Time to remove the rocks that are there so that later the seed can grow. You see how that works? For us, if that happens, there's only one answer, and that is to remove the rocks. Get to work, get those rocks out of that particular place of your heart's field. Right? And he tells us how to do that, and it's simple in its explanation, it's super difficult in its execution. He tells us to deny self and follow him. Deny self. Understand that about yourself, understand about that. That's your your inclination is to go that way and to be that way. Deny that. Crucify that, set that aside and don't pick it up again. Deny self, your self desires and uh what you think is your personality. No, you gotta deny that if it goes against what this is. Deny self and follow him. And if we're holding to self, we can't be following him. We're just leaving that rock there, and it's it's gonna continually be an obstacle for that good growth. Um I hope the explanation of that one was was somewhat um fitting. But that's a sneaky one, right? You can see the hardened path, till it up, right? We can see the thorns, they're on top, we're gonna get those out. That hidden rock one, that's that's a tough one. That's a tough one. It takes a lot of self introspection, like acknowledging what's actually happening and what's there. And all of these take prayer. Every single one of these change of bad, not good ground to good ground, every single one of them, prayer is part of the answer. Prayer to God to soften my hardened heart. Lord, please help me remove that hidden stone underneath the ground. Lord, help me. I want to be good ground. I desire to be fruitful. The whole uh drive for these things that Christ would have us be fruitful. And he does not smile upon not being fruitful.

unknown 38:50

Okay?

SPEAKER_00 38:51

There's a third ground he talks about. I think this one will resonate with uh us as well. I know it does for me. It says, and these are they which are sown among thorns, some such as hear the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh not what you want, unfruitful. So in this picture we have the seed going out, it lands in soil that's been tilled. It starts to uh do its thing, no rock underneath, it doesn't say about that. It starts growing up, but it's what's growing around it is the problem. And it's not good seed. It's weeds, it's thorns, it's things that do not contribute to the to the fruit, to the yield. And he explains what this kind of heart can be, and it's that is the cares and concerns of the world, of the world. And I'll tell you right now, that is a next place my heart has been there to where I have rejoiced, there's growth, there's things happening, but then there's something in the immediate uh proximity of that good growth where that's happening, and that's this world that's around me. It's the it's the busyness of work, it's the um concerns about uh vacations or financial state or on any kind of fill-in-the-blank there. It's the concerns of the world that in and of themselves might not be uh just altogether evil or bad, but they get in the way. They take, they kind of skip it in line of where the good growth is supposed to happen. The whole point is that that yield and that crop and that that fruit that's supposed to be, but then these other things kind of what you know what weeds do? They shoot up faster than the normal uh plant, than the good plant. They grow fast, like they grow like weeds, right? But then they also typically have real broad leaves. And what happens there is they're stilling all the sunlight that's supposed to uh be towards the good plant. And then they're underneath the soil, the roots are there, and they're soaking up all the water. It's like, you know what it's doing? It's siphoning off all the good stuff. That's what the weeds will do, is they'll they'll steal the resources that the the whole point is that plant is the fruit that's coming from that that um that seed. Again, just let them coexist. No. We have to deny ourselves and remove the weed, right? Be careful how I say it. I'm not saying we shouldn't have jobs or vacation, but the point is we have to lower the priority. We have to do our best to not allow the things of this world to take precedence over the things of the growth of his kingdom, of us, a spiritual yield. We have to put those things aside. And again, it takes denying self, it takes praying to him and him working in our lives uh in that way. So that's the the thorny ground, right? Till up the the hard compacted, remove the rocks, remove the thorns and weeds. You know what we're gonna have? If you do all of those things, the only good ground we have, and that is the good, um, softened, ready-to-receive heart. And this is the only kind of heart we should pray for. Well, I'll say it this way. Of course we wouldn't pray for the other hearts to have. Uh we should pray for a soft, tilled, good ground heart in every single worship service that we come to. That should be one of our morning prayers on Sunday morning, or if you're at a meeting, or throughout the week, Lord, let me enter into your sanctuary ready to receive the word that you broadcast to me today. There's nothing wrong with the seed. The seed is perfect. The only thing that's wrong is my heart. Prepare my heart to receive that seed, to receive that word, that it might grow, that the roots may go down, and that they may go down deep, that they may have lasting stability, that they may carry on in my life and grow up strong, and that they may shoot forth and grow up to the sky, and that off of it would come not just beauty. There's beauty in plants that grow up. But if it's a fruiting plant, if it's a pear tree, I think about when we we were uh we moved into pearland um house 90 or so, still members here. Mom and dad planted two pear trees in the backyard, which is interesting, it was pearland. We had two pear trees. And I think for the entirety of us living there, it didn't start putting off any pears for like the first five years. They were just trees at that point. They were they were pear trees. Their nature was to put off fruit, but the whole point, Sister Gail, was for the pears. Like if you're you're not putting off pears, then you're missing the whole idea. If you're not putting off the fruit, then you're missing the whole point is missing. We are to be fruitful. May the word land on my softened uh heart that's ready to receive those things that it might shoot forth and bring forth fruit. And the Lord doesn't bring forth off of this plant or off of you in small number. He brings it off abundantly. That it not only is a blessing for us in our lives, but is a blessing for other people. That it might be those for our brothers and sisters are blessed, and it multiplies and it goes out. That's how the Lord works. Uh from a very um real place. I have heard sermons. I can think of so many. I I can even like, it's like a picture of where I was sitting in the congregation. I remember the setting, the scene. I remember how it felt. And if that day, that day, I believed my heart was on good ground. You've had this experience, and you heard a sermon. That didn't just bless you that day, but you have drawn from for years and maybe decades, and that you have spoken about with other people. Do you remember when Brother So-and-so preached that? Oh, I remember that. You know what's coming off of that one seed that landed on your good groundheart that day? Hundredfold. I mean a crop that's just so yielding, so bountiful, that it is a miracle. That it's remarkable. It's supernatural. That's the kind of yield that came from that day when those men's words that weren't his, but they were his heavenly fathers working through a broken man, that the miracle of the gospel made uh land, that it's it's it's ranked right up there with the blind receiving his sight and the lame walking and the deaf hearing and the mute being able to speak and the dead being raised. That's the kind of miracle that comes forth from a little seed, from a man's lips, that it would land on our good hearts, and it would bring forth fruit, not only that day, but in our lives and other people's, and it just goes on and on. That's a miracle of the gospel. Pray for a soft, good heart every single time we come into the Lord's house. I uh go further. It's not just the preached word. Read his scriptures and read them often and read them praying before you go into it. I know I try to I try to read every day, I don't, but I try to keep onto a schedule. And I have a hard, hardened heart oftentimes when I'm trying to read the word. I'm I'm struggling. Like I might as well have read the whole thing and didn't see any of it. We can pray for a good heart, good, good ground heart when we're reading the word, right? As well. So it's not just the preach word. Okay, we'll go to 1 Corinthians. I do want to kind of the companion text here. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter 3. Thinking about the the minister of God, and again, I don't I don't think this only this does not stop with the ordained minister in the primitive Baptist Church. No, I think it um we're all we all minister unto people in our lives. We serve them the way we talk about them, the way we say, Yeah, I'm gonna pray for you and mean it and actually pray for people and talk about the Lord. We all, every one of us, whether we're uh an ordained minister to the gospel or not, we all minister to people in our lives, and those seeds matter. When they're the Lord's words that you're sharing with other people, you can that can bring forth um thirtyfold, sixtyfold, hundredfold as well. It doesn't just stop with the preached word from the pulpit by by no means. Um so lest we think that it's ever the man as the um the cause, the main cause of this thing, it's that's definitely not the case. And that is kind of what the apostle Paul hits on here in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. He's addressing the problem that is that one of the problems at Corinth, which was preacher worship. I can say it that way. It was a the way in which the people at that in that church body were gravitating towards maybe, say, Paul, or maybe some others that were gravitating towards Apollos, another preacher. Maybe maybe Paul had baptized him, or Apollos did, and so they're like, that that's that's really, he's kind of where it's at. And they kind of had their own following, as it were. And and what the apostle Paul would say is stop that. That is not the way we're we we should think about things. Yes, the apostle Paul is blessed to preach wonderful, powerful, profound sermons. Apollos the same way, but you're looking at the wrong place. That's what the apostles is is is driving at here. Is there any and he hits on the same picture of growth in a crop. Uh verse 6, he says, I have planted, this is Paul, verse 6, I have planted, Apollos watered. Both are important when you have a crop. You need to plant the seed, and then you need to try to water the seed, and because that's that's all part of the process of a good growth. I have planted Apollos watered, and then he turns his focus, their focus, to where it should be moving forward. Says, but God gave the increase. Is it exciting to see those corn stocks pop up and start to grow? Yes, but it's not about the seed necessarily, it's not about the water, it's about the Lord doing the growing. It's not about the worker doing the work that he's called to do. So don't put your attention on that. Don't give the credit necessarily to that. Give it to the one who's actually causing the plant to grow and bring forth a yield, and that is none other than God Himself. It's God that giveth the increase. Do we sometimes put a little bit too much focus on certain preachers? Guilty. I know it's wrong. I know I shouldn't do it. Why do I do it? I know I'm a flawed, sinful man. We're guilty of doing that thing. But the cause the instruction here that the Paul Apostle Paul has for the folks there at Corinthians tells me that they're not alone in this. We're creatures of light habit as well. It's not about the preacher. The word is right, the word is good, the seed is good. It's not about that sower, it's about the one who giveth the growth, giveth the increase, and that is God. So put our attention and our affection and our the credit where it belongs, which is God. So then, neither is he that planteth anything, neither of him that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. Now, he that planteth and he that watereth are one. Another way to say that, well, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. So there is work, there is labor that's involved with this, and we ought to be pressing ourselves into the service of God, and I ought to be studying more. I tried, I should be trying to preach better now than I was five years ago. I should be striving to do better five years from now. I want to be a better preacher by that point. But it's not so that people would say, Oh, I'm of James. I want to preach better so that the Lord giveth the increase, and that glory is going to him, and that his people are edified. That's why I want to be better at preaching by that point. Right? And it says, Um, he that planteth and he that watereth are one. Another way to say that is they are equal. They're equal. So that tells me that not one preacher or one preaching style is better than the next. They're all needed. They're all needed. Somebody who is a strong teacher of the thing, someone who uh heralds it more, uh whatever their style might be, who their family name is, none of those things are the things that should draw our attention and our affection. So let us just cast those things out. And when we do so, do you know what happens as a result? Our hearts are more good ground ready to receive the word. Because if we're sitting in the congregation in a place where we're like, oh, I'm so excited about this brother, he always is so blessed. We're gonna be blessed today. Oh, we're already in a bad place. That's not a good ground heart. We ought to be praying that the Lord do a miracle for that man who is so oftentimes blessed by the Lord to preach the gospel. And if we're sitting under, uh sitting and ready for a man to come up, and then we have a prejudice of how this, how we might, the whole experience might be. You know what we are? Or hardened, wayside heart right there. This isn't gonna be good. This this brother's never. Is there anything wrong with the word that he's gonna preach that he's intending to preach? The seed's good. Places is my heart. That's the problem, right? So pray that when when that happens to me, in that moment, say, Lord, I that that's that thought is not right. Lord, remove that thought from me, till my heart quickly, remove rocks quickly, get the get the weeds out quickly, and let me be ready to receive what this dear brother, who who is called by God, ready to preach this word, because what he might say, it might be a whole uh 45 minutes of beautiful preaching. The Lord works in that way. It might be one statement, it might be one little thing that that brother just hits on, and it might be, that's what seeds are. Seeds are not this, seeds sometimes are little things. And it with a good heart and that seed, that brother might say something at some time, and you're ready and you're praying for him, you're praying for a miracle to happen, and that seed comes and it lands, and something miraculous could happen anytime under any circumstance, with any brother who comes to stand before you, called by God, um, when he is preaching the word, when he is coming from the right source, miracles happen. When any brother gets up and preaches, and it's the Lord attends to it, it doesn't matter who that brother is or what his history is, it is a miracle. Lest we ever get that confused. Because it's not of him that watereth or him that planteth, but of God that giveth the increase. And it says, now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every one that shall receive his own reward according to his own labor, for we, I love this, verse nine. I hope this kind of wraps it up for you. For we, think of our congregation, whether it's here or a meeting or whatever it might be, for we are laborers together with God, and ye are God's husbandry. We're all laborers, ministering unto people in our lives. I attempt to try to be a laborer in the capacity the Lord has called me to be. It says, but together we are God's husbandry. Husbandry is a cultivating field. That's what husbandry is. There's the husbandman and there's the husbandry. Husbandry should take our minds right where we started with that sower, talking about a field. We're talking a place where all may be different kinds of ground, but the whole point is one thing: growth. The whole purpose is for yield, it's for it to come up, and it's supposed to yield forth lots of bountiful fruit, and he tells us that we are his cultivated field. We are. He, by his grace and his mercy, has caused growth and will continue to cause growth in you. I want my little spot of the field. My little spot in the field to be good ground as much as possible. You, your ground to be good ground as much as possible. Imagine weekend and week out, every single weekend where we come in. If more and more of us are in a place of having a good ground heart, just think about the growth that happens spiritually in our lives and affecting us and affecting other people. I want my little spot to be good where I'm at. I want your spot to be good. You want your spot to be good. Pray for each other, pray for you that the Lord will give you that soft, good, um ground heart, ready to receive the word every single time. Every single time the word is preached. Uh so certainly thankful for you, thankful for your prayers. Uh, continue to um to pray for me and my my work here in his ministry. If you ever desire to join with Grace Church, let your desire be known, which await upon you as scripturally authorized.