The Choking Effect of Divided Hearts

The phenomenon of believers who start with incredible spiritual enthusiasm only to disappear within months is more common than many churches want to admit. Jesus addresses this directly through His parable of the rocky ground believer in Matthew 13. These individuals receive God's word with immediate joy and excitement, looking identical to genuine converts in their initial response. They worship loudly, testify boldly, and serve faithfully, creating an impressive spiritual exterior that mirrors authentic faith.

However, the deception lies beneath the surface. Like a beautiful houseplant with shallow roots that topples at the slightest bump, rocky ground believers have built their faith on emotion rather than depth. When tribulation and persecution arise because of the word, they immediately stumble and fall away. The issue isn't their initial enthusiasm or the trials themselves, but the hidden rocks beneath the surface that prevent God's word from taking deep root in their hearts.

Spiritual roots serve four critical functions: they anchor you during storms, absorb nutrients from God's word, store reserves for difficult seasons, and support everything visible in your public spiritual life. The iceberg principle applies here - only 10% of your spiritual life should be visible above the surface, while 90% consists of private prayer, daily Scripture study, and hidden obedience. Moving from rocky ground to good soil requires removing hidden obstacles like unresolved sin and buried wounds, developing consistent daily spiritual practices, and allowing trials to deepen rather than destroy your faith. Root growth is always slower than visible growth, but it's the foundation that determines whether your faith will endure when storms inevitably come.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:29

So today we will start a word. Hopefully, we have time to complete it. And I want to begin with a diagnostic reality today. A diagnostic reality today. Now in the parable of the soa, Jesus described four heart responses to God's word. So the parable of the sower that we've been on, Matthew uh Matthew chapter 13, for the last few weeks. And this um month is actually focused on rooted on in in the word, rooted in God's word. And we'll be studying the parable of the sower. And just for you to understand that what Jesus was trying to reveal to the church with this parable, what's the four different responses to God's word. Amen. So the soils, the four different soils are the four different responses to God's word. Okay. And over the last past two weeks, we've been ex we've examined the first one, which is the hard path, uh, what's called heart, which is impermeable truth. The fact is that we've been going about the wayside soil or you know, the path soil or whatever uh sidewalk, uh what's the name? Uh India calls it. Um sidewalk. Sidewalk, sidewalks, whatever it is. I call it hard path, heart. What is basically the word is sown, and the word does not penetrate to the soil, okay? And we've already established that without the presence of the word in someone's life, there is no fruitfulness or no productivity. And one of the easiest ways for you to assess yourself as we're going through the study, it's to look at your fruitfulness and be honest with yourself. How fruitful are you in the things of God? Well, when we talk about fruitfulness, it's not about the physical things you've acquired, the house, the degrees. We're talking specifically about spiritual fruitfulness. Amen? That's what God expects from us, the spiritual fruitfulness. And how do you determine the spiritual fruitfulness in the Bible? We look at the fruits of the Spirit. How well are we exhibiting the fruits of the Spirit? How well are we exhibiting and obeying the commands of God's word? How well are we willingly giving ourselves into the things that heaven expects from us? That is how you assess your spiritual fruitfulness. Does it make sense? And so, what Jesus is trying to explain to us for the last couple of weeks, it's how we respond to his word because that determines the level of fruitfulness that comes out of the word. Amen. And so we also spoke about the rocky ground soil. Last week we received with joy, but has no roots in themselves. Now, today we are going to talk about the most dangerous soil of them all. You know why? Because that looks spiritual. The thorny ground. Okay? Now, just for us to set the precedence that we know what we're discussing today. The thorny ground believer is not an unbeliever. In other words, they go to church. In other words, they understand the Christian lingo. In other words, they respond to when Pastor says amen, they say amen to. In other words, they periodically go to church. They actually describe themselves as Christians. Okay? So we are not talking about unbelievers, or we're not talking about somebody who is backslided. No. These are believers. They haven't backslidden. They are possible in the church every Sunday. They are possible in the church, serving in the church. They possibly have positions in the church. These are people like every single one of us sitting here. But there is something profoundly wrong. The word is being received, but it is not producing fruit. Amen. And so they come to church every Sunday. They serve, they do things, they receive the word. Periodically, they know how to respond to the word, but they are setting fruits that God expects from their lives that it's they are not producing fruit. And this is not because the seed they're receiving is bad. It's not because they're in a bad church and receiving a bad word. No. It's not because God is withholding the harvest, but because their ground is divided. The word has competition. Okay? And Jesus began to teach the church, these believers, this, his followers, this, because number one, let's set this stage. Jesus wants every one of his followers to be productive. Okay. And if you don't identify what is wrong, you can't fix it. And so this parable was really to identify what was wrong or how people could now be productive in the things of God. So in week one, which we spoke about, they're not reception believer. The word never penetrates. Okay? They come to church because for them it's a tradition or it's something that they've done for a long time. It's something that they get up in the morning and they said they feel like, okay, we went to church just to also, just to check the box that we went to church, okay? But they come to church and nothing is being taught is penetrating the soil. Okay? And that's what we discussed in week one. Week two, we discussed about the rocky ground, the shallow reception, okay? The word enters but has no root. And so they are the loudest. They are the first people to say amen. They are the first people to acknowledge that service was great. They are the first people to, you know, call themselves believers, but they come to church and for five years, six or seven years, the lifestyle they live is still the same. Nothing has improved. Why? Because the word that is supposed to bring a harvest has no roots in them. Okay? And this is the shallow reception. Today we're talking about the thorny grounds, which is the divider reception. The word enters but is choked. Okay? And then hopefully next week we'll talk about the good soil, which is the full reception, the one that produces the 3600fold production. Now, we want to start with this question today. And these are all in your hand not your handbooks, uh, your participation guides. Um, so if you I think if you look at page one of participation guide, this question is posed there. Uh yes, it is. It might be a bit dog bit in there. So, what's the question? What is competing with God's word in your life? Because for the last two months, we come to the end of the first quarter. Since we began this year with the year of fruitfulness, we're talking about the word and how the word establishes and how the word is the foundation of everything that a believer is ever going to have. Okay? And so if you do not identify what is competing with the word in your life, you will not be able to know how to change that situation. Amen? So let's go to our key text today, which is Matthew 13, verse 22, quickly. Matthew 13, 22. It's a now he who receives seed among the thorns is he who hears the word. Okay? He's in church, obviously he's going to hear the word. And the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches chokes the word, and it becomes unfruitful. Take a look at the statement Jesus said, it becomes unfruitful. Now let's cross-reference that in Luke chapter 8, verse 14. Luke verse 8, 14 says, Now the one that falls among thorns are those who, when they hear, go out when they when when they have heard, they go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring nothing fruit to maturity. Okay. Now, in both uh uh what's it called uh in both uh books or letters um both Luke and Matthew Jesus uses a word that is interesting. Jesus says that the forms, okay, which he describes as Luke describes as cares, riches, and pleasures of life. And Jesus also describes in Matthew they kill the word. But it's interesting that Jesus never said they killed the word, he said they make it unfruitful. Amen. Not dead, not destroyed, but unfruitful. In other words, the word is received, but certain situations are competing with the word. And because they're competing with the world, we're gonna find out today what these things, competing things are, and why these things are going to choke the world from producing. And if these things are present in your life or present in any believer's life, guaranteed that you are not going to be fruitful unless you take care of these things. So the thorn does not kill the plant, it simply prevents the harvest. Amen. So let's cycle back and understand. This person is saved. Okay? He's probably on his way to heaven. Who knows? Because, you know, Paul says if we believe with the mouth and confess with their mind, if we believe with the heart and confess with their mother, Jesus is Lord, you will be saved. So the person is saved. The person is doing his best, come to church every single Sunday. He's but because of these issues that he has not taken care of, he's going to heaven, but the fruitfulness or the expectation I haven't had for their lives, they're never going to realize it. Why? Because they are not doing what they're supposed to do. Their life on earth is this in this season, their soul condition is producing nothing for the kingdom. When you take a look at the version that we read in Luke, the cross-reference, look at the word that Matthew did not. And what was that word? The pleasures. Okay? So when we combine what Luke said and what Matthew said, we will arrive at this that Jesus named the three categories of thoughts that it's laid out in both texts that we read, both in Luke and both in Matthew. Okay? And we're going to take a look at those quickly. So the first category in your hand notes, it's what we call worry. Now, how many times did Jesus tell his people not to worry? And actually, even in the book of the book of Psalms, the psalmist wrote something that says, Don't fret or don't worry because it only causes harm. And so in the worry category, we have anxiety, we have fear, and we have obsessive concerns. Okay? Now the mind rhymes simulations of worst-case scenarios. Instead of standing on the promises of God, there's a situation in your life. Instead of you standing just on what God has said, you run through your mind all the simulations of different scenarios of things that could have happened, that could have gone wrong. But meanwhile, you are still standing. But you are hoping, you're wishing that something so bad is about to happen. Okay? When we talk about anxiety and what's called, then we talk about a fear. The heart is so consumed with what ifs that there is no room for all God has said. Okay? And which a lot of people, believe me or not, struggle from. Most of the diseases we're dealing with begins from anxiety and worry. The thing is that you are thinking about things that you are hoping to happen and they've not happened yet. And they haven't happened yet, but you are positioning yourself in case they happen so you can figure out a way out of it. Excuse me?

unknown 13:42

Insurance.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

Insurance for what? Insurance for worry. Okay. Which are called obsessive concerns. The fact is that you are standing on both two feet. You are still alive, man. Everything is going okay. But you just, you know, there's certain times that good things happen to you, and they start asking yourself a question. You can't accept those good things. You you you are waiting for something really bad to happen. Obsessive concerns. Then Jesus said, wealth, the pursuit of money, materialism, financial obsessions, not money itself, but money as organizing center of a daily life. The question, what does God want, is always filtered through what does it cost me? So it's not about what God wants, it's about what this is going to cost me. Okay? And so the worry is about, it's, it's, it's, it's about, so Jesus said that anxiety, that the pursuit of wealth, the deception of wealth, the worry about money all the time. Like you think about it, why are people so consumed about money? Why is it that the only thing, the only deciding factor in every situation, it's not about what God has said about the situation, it's about the deciding deception of money. And this is going on in the church today. Then it talks about pleasure. So three important categories here: anxiety, wealth, the money category, and pleasures. Okay? Pleasures, which is entertainment, comfort, self-indulgence, the habitual retreat into things that feel good but produces nothing. You know, the smartphone, the screen, the recreational escape that have become more regular than prayer. It's always that's what makes me relax. Have you seen how many times you spend on literally scrolling social media? Just watching when people act in a fool, they're doing exactly what they want you to do. They want you to spend your time watching them acting a fool, and them acting a fool is what entertains you, and then you're worried about why is my life the way it is? Let me let me share a golden rule with you. We're gonna get there in a minute. Whatever you feed on, whatever you feed on is what you produce, and so you've made up your mind that this is what relaxes me. So you spend hours on TikTok, and you have the audacity to complain to God, why is my life the way it is? You literally invest money, you know. Jesus says something where your heart is there, your treasure may be also. You're literally investing your treasures in somebody else's foolishness. You can't scroll past social media without seeing women showing their naked bum bum and just shaking their naked bum bum on social media, and men will watch it and laugh. You don't anyway. Let me stay, let me stay, let me say uh PG, PG, PG. So let's take a look at the profile of a thorny believer, okay? Number one, they attend church regularly. Okay, but the sermon really changes their lives. The same times I'm I'm I'm standing up here and I see people walking in that of the essence, just walking in out. They come and sit down, two minutes. Every two minutes you go to a bathroom. If you're a man, you have to visit the bathroom every two minutes, go check your prostate. Either that there's something seriously wrong with you. Like you can't sit down for a minute in a church just to consume and absorb the word that is coming out. There are sometimes people are sitting there, they are dozing. You had eight hours to sleep, and you choose to sleep in the two hours you sit in church when God's word is being shown. And again, the same things that you're missing are the things that protect you when you need protection the most. And so because they don't give themselves into God's word, the sermon really changes their lives. Whatever they are is what they are, whatever they've absorbed up to the point, it's what they feed on. Amen. It's never the willingness about today is a new Sunday and God has something new for me, and I'm opened up to what God wants to teach me. And this is how we will produce fruit in the kingdom by accepting what is being taught. We're studying this on Wednesday. And those of you who have decided not to show up on Wednesday, okay? No, they read the Bible occasionally, but really meditate, really apply it, really let it confront habits in their lives. And so, you know how people read the Bible selectively? They're looking for specific verses in the Bible that they can pray with. They can sound spiritual with those specific verses. It's not about meditating on the words they're reading. It's not about applying those words they're reading. Because if every single person here read God's word and applied it, trust me, man, our life should be totally different. The problem is that we read, but we don't apply. And this is a throwning ground believer. They don't apply it, they don't let it confront your habits. You know that the habits, there are certain habits in your life that are really bad. You know it. I mean, the Holy Spirit is in you and it tells you every single time you go to church, they're preaching, and the same time you're sitting in church, you think they're preaching out of you. But it's really the Holy Spirit trying to tell you, bringing things to your mind, that this behavior, this habits are wrong. Fix it. How can somebody be a believer 30, 40, 50 years, same habit for 30, 40, 50 years, not working on it? It's because you have not allowed God's word to penetrate to that side of your life to bring correction to you. And so this is how you identify what type of soul or you are, what type of hero you are, whether you are waiting, you are thorn grounds, you are, you know, this identifies it because if you are sitting in church and you've been saved for a while and God expects fruit from you, fruit for long suffering, and fruit from gentleness, and fruit from kindness, and fruit from, you know, self-control, and you don't have these things, then it tells you plainly that the word has not penetrated it. Because somewhere along the line, you read a word that deals with long suffering. You've had something that deals with patience, you've had it. Why is it that the word has not penetrated yet? You pray when it's convenient. Prayer is a reaction, not a relational communion. Does it make sense? And so the only time that you're motivated to pray is when you're seeking something from God. When things are not lining up for you, you feel like there's a demon in your house that is causing problems for you. So you go into your profile club prayers and you bind all the demons. But meanwhile, the behavior that you have that is allowing Satan access in your life that God is telling you all the time you haven't fixed it. Because you come to church, you read the Bible, you listen to a sermon, and that part of it you shut your ears to. But that is what is going to prevent you from wasting your time in praying welfare prayers when God has already taken care of those demons. Behaviors is a problem. And so your prayer life is all about what is a reaction when something is wrong, when you're in crisis, is when you pray. It's not about I'm praying for relations, for communion with the Holy Spirit, so that I draw strength from Him and willingness to obey His word every single day. That is a believer that produces fruit. Amen. And watch this now. The last category of this interesting. They know the word, man. They can quote verses, man. They can even pass a Bible trivia, but produces minimum or no lasting fruit. So, in other words, the word is just up here, head knowledge. They've got a great memory, so they can easily recite the word, right? They can retain the word in their lives, they can have a conversation with anyone. But the fact is that there is very minimum fruit. Why? Because they have not allowed the word to penetrate. Now let's go to image one quickly. Richard, you can go to image one now. And just imagine this is your uh your backyard, okay? And this is July, your backyard. But way back in May, you planted some tomato seeds. The soil is being watered, the sun is shining, you know, the weather is breaking now, sun is shining. But you did something silly. You never attacked the weeds on your backyard. So, in other words, you winter is all gone, the summer is about, you know, the the leaves, the things, the weeds and everything else that are popping up now. And you decide I'm going to plant a garden. So you take some tomato seeds and just plant them. And you water them, okay? And this, you did this in May. You come June, something happens. You walk through, and by come of July, there are tomatoes, but they are very small, very pale, and they are struggling. Why the veggie, the vegetables cannot grow to full size because every nutrient is being competed with by the weeds. Because instead of first of all, you pulling the weeds, making sure that the soil is ready for tomato seeds, you didn't do that. You just went and decided, I'm going to plant the seeds. Okay? And after a while, you go about taking a look at your garden, you're thinking, man, this tomato seeds, these tomatoes are small. Wow, what's going on here? But then you look around everywhere, the weeds everywhere. What is actually happening is that the weeds are competing with nutrients, with the vegetables. They didn't kill the plant, the weeds just prevented the harvest. So this is it. If you want to understand where this analogy, this illustration is, this is a thorny ground heart. The word is alive in there, but it's being competed to death. Okay. So let's now study how thones choke the seed. There are five steps we're going to look at. And again, all everything is in the handout. Step number one, they compete for nutrients. Thorns drawn draw from the same soil. You can't plant, you can't have weeds or thorns in the soil that you planted vegetables and expect the thorns not to grow or expect your vegetables to grow. You know why? Because both are competing from the same nutrients on the soil. And so if you're a believer and you allow the three things that Jesus aligned, the case of this world, the seed of the riches of pleasures, to be on your soil, which is affecting the majority of the church, and we don't deal with that. But when God's word is sown and you expect harvest, you're not going to get a harvest. Why? Or you're getting a minimal harvest, why? Because there's competition going on. Does that make sense? You know, these things are drawing nutrients from what God's word is supposed to draw from. So when we talk about worries of the worries of uh the worries and the and the word of God exist in the same heart. And this is what's happening to most of us. We are in church, but we're checked out. You come to church every Sunday, but you're not here. Because as you're sitting down in church, you're listening to God's word, whatever time you are spending with God, at the back of your mind is still these worries, okay? These anxieties, these things, Satan intentionally, you have not taken the time to deal with them. Okay? So there's a competition going on. Does it make sense? There is a simple, not simply not enough undivided attention for both. You don't have enough nutrients to supply both the thorns or the weeds on your on your on your soil and the vegetables on your soil. It just doesn't happen. Common sense to tell you that it's only the best is going to be 50-50. 50% of the resources are going to go to the thorns, 50% are going to go to your vegetables. Okay? And so, again, the golden rule is whatever you feed yourself, whatever you feed on grows. Okay? When you spend three hours, when we spend our time scrolling through social media and spend 10 minutes in God's word, you have just given the thorns nutrient advantage. You read God's word this morning. You spent 10 minutes when you woke up. Some of us don't even do it. But then the rest of the day, you are glued to the TV. You're glued to social media. You're giving your ears to gossip. You're giving your ears to unproductive things. What you just did, you just made a choice. You just decided that the thorns in your life, you just gave them nutrient advantage over the word you just read this morning. So, in other words, the word is not going to produce the fruits that you're looking for. Why? Because your attention was given to something else. And so the nutrients, you decided to give those nutrients advantage to those things. Amen? Okay. Please understand this that harvest cannot compete. God's word cannot compete with the time that you've given to unproductive things in your life. Okay? Step number two. What do these thorns do? They block sunlight. Thorns who grow tall and shade their crops, they create interferences that block your direct connection with the sun. You know the sun is the source of every spiritual growth. So, in other words, you know, for those of you, you know, we study a bit of agriculture, you know, you know this, right? If something is blocking, if your sun, if the sun, you know, for the synthesis, right? The leaves need the sun to be able to do what it does, doesn't it? So if something is growing taller than your things that you have there, what is happening? It's going to block the sun rays. So definitely your plants are going to struggle. And that's what these things do. A clutter mind has no room for the still small voice of God. You're sitting here and your mind is all over the place, man. Doesn't matter what is being said, your mind is running all over the place. Okay? You are not in control of your mind. You can't control your mind and your feelings. It's all over the place. So even whatever God is saying, you are not hearing. Why? Because your cluttered mind is just too loud. God is not shouting over your worries, He's waiting for you to clear the channel. Many times you're worried and you think, doesn't God see that I'm worried? But what God is doing is that God is waiting for you to clear the channel so that He can speak to you on what to do. But your cluttered mind is so busy, it's so all over the place that whatever the Holy Spirit is saying, you are not even hearing it. Someone's not listening to me today. They drain energy, resource, resources of time, thoughts, and treasures are redirected to the thorns. And so when these things are present in your life, what they're actually doing is that they're draining energy from you. What type of energy? Your time, your thoughts, the treasures, a little bit of money, the little bit of treasure that you have that you want to invest in God's kingdom, they're taking it away from you. You see, the hour that should you should feed on spiritual growth are going to non-fruitful, productive growth. Entertainment worries, pursuing things that will not last, recovering from pleasures that often offers nothing for eternal life. Then we'll talk about the crowd out space. There is no room left for the word to expand. Imagine there is a small, narrow place, right? Let's say, let's say realistically, all two people can. There's a small room, right? There's an entrance, and only two people can enter this at the same time. But there are five people trying to go through the same space. How is it going to look like? What is happening most of the time is that when all these things are in our lives, they actually there's no room for God's word to expand. Okay? The heart becomes so full of competing loyalty that transformation cannot take roots. You hear the sermon, you feel it is for a moment, then comes Monday, comes Tuesday, and the thorns are louder than the word. By Wednesday, it is gone. Look at Matthew 6 24. So no one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he'll be loyal to one and disperse the other. You cannot serve God and Mohammed. It's interesting. Jesus did not say you might not be able to. He said you cannot. Okay? You cannot have two masters. You cannot have be the chief accountant for worry and be the chief accountant, custodian for God's word. It cannot be. You will be loyal to one. Okay? So Jesus did not say it's going to be difficult to serve two masters. He said it is simply impossible. Now watch this. A divided heart is not a natural heart. It is an inactive, destructive one. You will inevitably love and despise the other. And the one you despise will starve out. So simply, if you hate something, you hate, and it's not about even hating God's word. It's about not being able to give yourself to servicing God's word properly because of all these things that bombard you all the time. So 1 John 2.15 and 7 to 17. 1 John 2.15 to 17, New King James. He said, Do not love the world or the things of this world. Man, I hope I wish I could advise some Christians this morning. We want to dress like the world. We want to look like the world. We the world, actually, the things that go on the world is very attractive to us. You know, so much so that now we kind of in the what's it called importing well things into the church. Just for us to, it's all in the interest of making it comfortable for the world so that when somebody comes from the world, they feel comfortable in the church. They were never supposed to be comfortable. The way we preach the things we talk about, we change all those things because we want it to be very comfortable for the world. There were never, ever, the world, people and never, ever, there is no friend of yours who is not a believer that should ever be comfortable around you. What has light got to do with darkness? There has to be that clear contrast. And so all these things we don't, he said, do not love the world or the things of the world, period. Don't love anything that comes out of the world. What they look, the way they talk, the way they smile, the way nothing. Nothing. You should not take your inspiration from anybody who is not in covenant with Jesus. Yeah, I said it. I'm on record. If you listen to me, you should never take your inspiration. You go to TikTok and you look at what people do, and then you begin to hold child of light. Look at what the Bible says. Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. It didn't say if you love the world, the love of the no, no. It tells you this is the reason why you respond to God's word. You were saying this morning, the same Christians, these are the same people that mention the name of Jesus. Same people that are hoping to go to heaven are the same people that are chastising the body of Christ. Same people that will, because of money, same people are complaining about money, and the pastor said this. And the pastor said, Leave Christianity and go to another religion and see if you can take your foolishness over there. Go serve another God and take your foolishness to serve that God and see. It is only believers, only Christians who think they have a voice. Listen, man, if anyone loves the world, the love of the father is not in him. How are you gonna love world things more than loving the father? For all that is in the world, the last of the flesh, the last of the eye, and the pride of life, it is not of the father, but it's of the world. And it says, and the world is passing away and the last of it, but he would do the will of God abides forever. Now, watch this now. In this very verse, John identifies the three root systems behind every worldly thorn. The last of the flesh. You know, Christians will want to sing and jump and da-da-da-da. But if you take a look underneath the surface, it is really because of the lusts of the flesh that's what we do, what we do. Someone is not hearing me. Bodily desires. We have to things that are irrelevant, totally things that are absolutely relevant. We look like everybody else. Because I'm a Christian, I'm not supposed to do, yes, because you're Christian, you're not supposed to do this. Because you're Christian, I'm not supposed to look different. Yes, I'm supposed to look different. Because I'm a Christian, I'm not supposed to speak different. Yes, I'm supposed to. Am I supposed to keep company that is not righteous? Yes, won't keep that company. There's a difference. The difference. Actually, if you don't know, let me just if you don't know the word ecclesia. Do you know what the word ecclesia means? I will build my church. What is it? Called out from the world is the word ecclesia. So how do you how you called out from the world and you just look just like the world? You have a couple of friends and you look the same, you speak the same, you everything they do, you do. What is the difference? I'm going to heaven. Maybe you make it one day. I'm not going. I'm never about to tell nobody. Maybe one day you make it. But the foundation of Christianity is that you look different from the people who are not like you. That's the foundation. So the last of the flesh. And the reason why we never have any money to give God, people are starving in the world, churches are closing down, people, friends are calling me, they're losing their positions in churches, and people sit down in the church every Sunday. Somebody will know. These are big churches. There's even them, they can't afford their bills now. Dr. G. They can't. Laying people off, even them. The big churches. Some of them can't even afford their bills. And their churches are full of human beings, full of Christians. You look at them and you go outside the car park, you see the cars they drive. American drink. You see the clothes you wear, the handbags they carry, the women, the lipsticks they put on themselves. American drink. And the church is struggling. Eat restaurants. Take away food is what they eat. The last of the flesh. There is no difference between believers and unbelievers. The unbelievers have lusts of the flesh, believers have laughs of the flesh. Last of the flesh. This house is nice, so I'm gonna buy this house because I've arrived. Last of the last eyes, you know what that is? It's covetousness. You are a believer and you are still coverting things. The pride of life, self-advancement. Nothing is ever enough. You want ten doctrines, self-advancement, it just covetousness. That's what Jesus said. Please, I'm not saying it is the word that said it. The pride of life. What is the pride of life? It's self-advancement. These are the seeds of which thorns grow, if you want to know. If this is a present in your life, the thorns are growing because your your what you are looking for, it's totally what God wants for you. We have to be separate, we have to be different. Tell somebody we have to be different. Now just imagine. Man, what time goes today? Just imagine you're sitting in a restaurant. Go to illustration number two for me, please, quickly. Uh Richard. You sit in a restaurant, and every 30 minutes, you're talking to somebody, your loved ones, your children, your spouse, your closest friend, and every 90 seconds, they're looking at their phone. What's going on here? Notification. Buzz buzz buzz. Every nine. Every second. Buzz. Then another one. What is going on? The uh technically present, same on the table, same seat, but functionally absent. The person across you is talking, but you are only catching pieces of it. That's what's going on here. This is a thorny ground hunting church. The word is being preached. You are in the room, your body is present, but your worries, your well, the worries of wealth, the pleasures keep buzzing inside your life, and the word never gets your attention or gets your invited attention long enough for you to make a difference in your life. You're sitting here, you're catching pieces, little pieces of what I'm saying. Maybe you are even angry at me. Who does this man think he is? Talking to me that way. Because I'm calling, instead of you admitting that the Holy Spirit is speaking to my heart, and the Holy Spirit wants me to repent, you are mad because someone is calling you out. And that's what was just happening here. You are in and out, you are sitting here bodily, you came to church, but you're not here. The Holy Spirit doesn't have any control of your heart. You've been going through this cycle for how many years now? And you're wondering why I am still having these behavior issues in my life. Because without God's word present in your life, you cannot afford this correction, it's not coming. Amen. It's God's word that takes root, that corrects these behavior patterns in you. And if you don't allow it to penetrate, that's why you've been the same for the last 10 years. And trust me, you're going to be the same till Jesus returns. And only Him knows what that one I don't know. Okay. Third illustration. Who knows a kudza vine? Who've seen that before? I was interested when I was looking at this. You know, apparently in the 1930s, people planted this themselves. It was beautiful, right? They planted this. They live in the south, yes. Sort of, right? People planted willingly. No one saw the danger. These things grow apparently a foot per day. But watch what it does. So people planted because it was beautiful initially without actually knowing what it would do to them. And these started growing and growing and growing. Now watch this now. Watch this. This is interesting because what this does is that it doesn't kill by attacking whatever it kills by covering. Okay? How does it do that? It shuts out light until everything under it dies. Because without the sun hitting, it prevents it. So what it does is that you planted it literally, because you thought it was nice. But it's grown at a pace quicker than anything else underneath it. And then it covers it entirely. And so it shields the sun rays from hitting it and it kills it by covering it. Okay. It shuts our light until everything and then it dies. This is exactly what a worldly a worldly thorn works in a delivered and divided heart. This is exactly how thorns work in a believer's life. And these thorns that Jesus read identified, the worries of this world, the diseasefulness of riches and pleasures, these three things, the anxiety, guaranteed, is going to compete with the word, it's going to kill the word in you. And Jesus already told us that this is the reason why we are not bearing fruits, because when these things are present, it's going to do it. So these arrive looking manageable. This is somebody's problems. One day something happens and you think, yeah, I can just deal with it. It's manageable, it's natural. Even beautiful at first. You know, the same times that we get worry coming, and you know, you know, we we feel comfortable worrying about these things. If you let them grow unchecked, they will blanket every square inch of your spiritual life. Beautiful at first, destructive over time. Now, one thing I love about the gospel is this. The gospel is not a diagnosis without a prescription. Amen. Jesus identified the problem so we can address it. So whatever Jesus said, this is the thing, most people feel condemned. You shouldn't. Whatever Jesus, Richard, take the illustration over, please. Whatever Jesus addressed in the gospels, he addressed it so that you can fix it. Okay? So without you being aware that this is happening, there's no way that you can fix it to be a good soil. And so this is not about trying to condemn you or bring condemnation. My behavior is this. No, the reason why you go to a doctor when you're sick is because you are sick and you want a solution. The reason why you are coming to Jesus is that you are willing to open up for Jesus to fix you. The problem is that most of them come, most of them come to church, but we don't come to be fixed. We come with our minds set on things. And it doesn't matter what is said, we are not going to adopt whatever because I think this way. And you'll be thinking this way, and there's no productivity in your life because you've been thinking this way for the last 10, 15 years. But what God wants us to do every single day is to hear his word and allow the word to come in and fix us. That is a good ground. Amen. So we talk about five practical steps for cleaning thorns out and we pray. Number one, you gotta identify the thorn. Name it specifically, not I worry too much. You know, people say I worry too much. No, no, no, no, no. What is your worry? Is it anxiety about your finances? Is it about your marriage? Is it about what people think about you? Listen to this vague acknowledgement produces no real change. Specific identification enables targeted removal. You cannot pull what you refuse to name. So if you have an issue today, if you are worrying, if you are, you know, you have desires and pleasures, whatever it is that we've discussed, if you don't name it today, you cannot uproot it. You have to admit there's something wrong. And I actually say that the first sign of deliverance is admitting there's something wrong. So the first sign of deliverance for every human being is admitting I have a behavior trace in me that is not right. And you can identify, you can't defend something that is wrong. Amen. And so we need to identify it, approach it from the roots, you let it go. Now pull the entire, pull them early, okay? Identify it. This is what I'm dealing with. You have an anger issue, deal with it. It's about anxiety, deal with it. You're still in church, you love Jesus, but you still have pleasures of the world. Deal with that because that's a thorn. It will not let the word grow in you. And this is why Jesus wants us to separate ourselves from these things. Amen. And when you identify it, deal with it early, pull it early. A small thorn is far easier to remove than an established root system. A worry entertained for a day is easier to approach than one rehearsed over one year. The moment you recognize a thorn, act. Delay is the thorn's greatest ally. So if you know that something is wrong, act on it immediately. This is only if you made up your mind that you want to be a fruitful Christian. If only you made up your mind that I just don't want to be a churchgoer, but I actually want to experience fruitfulness in God, then this is what you do. You deal with it. We are all prone to having making mistakes, man. It's it's a part of the human error. We all learning. But the moment the Holy Spirit brings it to mind that this is wrong, don't argue it, don't defend it. Deal with it. Pull it off, then pull them often. So it's not something that you deal once. Just imagine I want to plant uh, what's it called, a garden in the back of my house. And I went out in May and I cleaned up, you know, took all the weeds out, put fertilizers and planted tomatoes. The weeds come back, don't they? If you don't deal with them. So you have to always go back constantly and remove those seed weeds, right? And this is what we're talking about. Pull them often. Weeding is not a one-time event. The gardener, garden cleared in May can be overgrown by July. Phones management requires consistency, daily spiritual discipline. Testament is a daily spiritual discipline. No annual Christ management. A Sunday service cannot fix six days off on checked phones. You can't come and sit down one day for two, two hours, and then the whole week, you've been worried about everything else. You think going to be checked out? No, you've got it's a daily thing that you gotta do. Then the Bible says that examine yourself and make sure you're in the faith. Oh, you're not hearing me. You get up in the morning as a believer, how do you know that you're in the faith? When you examine yourself constantly, whenever decision you're making, you are looking at it through the lens of scripture. That's how you know that you're saved. And that's how you know that Satan is not man blitzing your thoughts. This is not something that's gonna happen automatically. Pull them out completely. Don't just cut out the weeds. Suffice removal is temporal. The roots must come up. Have repentance is not repentance. Cutting the top of the weed guarantees it returns stronger until the root comes out. The mind obsession, the fear-based thinking, the entertainment addiction, the phones will grow back. What did Jesus tell them? Didn't he say that when you deliver a person, when a spirit leaves a person, he goes and wanders around and then comes back and checks? Guaranteed they'll come back. If you don't uproot the roots, they will come back. If you just cut it out on the surface, you think you've done something. Go back in six week and see the because when the roots remain, they will come back. This is something that you gotta we gotta uproot entirely. Look at Colatians 3, 2, I think in the last scripture. Bible says, set your mind on things above, not on things on this earth. Set your mind on things above. And I leave you with this. A vacuum is a natural attraction, a cleared heart without new content will be refilled. Likely with Westorns. Fill the clear ground immediately with fruitful practice. In other words, when you identify what is wrong and you deal with it, don't just leave it vacuum. Because if you live in vacuum, Satan will find a way to come back. You feel it. And how do you feel it? The word. How do you fill it with prayer? How do you feel it with your service in the God's house? How do you feel it with a godly community? An empty heart is not a safe heart, it is an open invitation. So as we run up today, and I think on the last page of your handouts, there's something called a calendar test. I have three diagnostic questions for you. Your time. Where do you spend your hours? Watch this now. Your schedule. How your day is occupied. It's your actual theology. That's what you're practicing. Okay? It reveals what you truly worship. So you take your whole day, and if you take your eight hours a day, and six hours of them is spent on social media, that's your theology. It reveals what you truly worship. It's your day packed with God's activities. What is packed with is packed with prayer, packed with study, packed with fellowship, packed with helping people to mature, packed with growth. Is that what it's what is your day, your time is spent on? Let's come back to your thoughts. What dominates your mental space? What's in here? What do you think about the most you serve? So, guess what? Monitor your mind. Peter said, girdle up the lungs of your mind. Because what you are thinking about the most is what you're gonna end up serving. And Satan is no fool bombarding the social media space with those negative things. Because the more you see, the more your mind goes on it, and the more your mind goes on it, the more it becomes your theology, the more you start working on those things, and the more you worship those things. And then finally, your treasures. Where do you invest your finances? Matthew 6, 21 says something. Where your treasure is, there your hearts may be also. So Jesus did not close this parable in despair. The good news is this any soil can become a good soil. The same seed that was choked in the thorny ground will bear 30, 60, 100fold in prepared ground. The seed is good, the harvest is still promised. The only variable here is the condition of the ground. So we end with this challenge. This week, I challenge you to do a thorn audit this week. And this is your thorn audit. Name three thorns that are actively competing with God's word in your life. Commit to removing at least one of them. Fill that space with a fruitful practice. Your harvest is not canceled, it is waiting for you to clear the ground.