SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining us on the CCW podcast.
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SPEAKER_00: We hope you're encouraged, inspired, and motivated by today's message.
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SPEAKER_01: Good morning, CCW.
SPEAKER_01: Good morning.
SPEAKER_01: Glad to see you.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to take your Bible and turn to Luke chapter 8, looking at this morning the parable of the sower.
SPEAKER_01: And as we think about that, I want to share a prayer request.
SPEAKER_01: On to that, we have a team of people gone this week that are on mission down in Mobile, building some roofs and serving some people in the community down in Mobile, including our uh two of our pastors, Pastor Joe and Pastor Dave.
SPEAKER_01: So they're there and they have this opportunity to be sowing seed all week.
SPEAKER_01: We'll be looking at that.
SPEAKER_01: I was meeting up with Deidra Brown, our missions coordinator last week.
SPEAKER_01: She was here, and you see Deedra just very sporadically.
SPEAKER_01: Um but Deedra since March has been to Nepal, Peru, Zambia, and Alaska on missions trips.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought, what an amazing.
SPEAKER_01: She's gonna come home and not know what home is.
SPEAKER_01: But anyhow, if you want to know how to get involved in missions at CCW, see one of us.
SPEAKER_01: We have some stuff on the website, but we send out teams throughout the year and um and it's exciting opportunities.
SPEAKER_01: The week before last Sunday, the the week leading up to on Friday and Saturday, as we get ready for vacation Bible school that's coming, we took a group of our teenagers, and we took about 15, 17 kids and went into Chelsea Park.
SPEAKER_01: We went to villages of Westover, we went to Willow Oaks, we went to Chester Plantation, and I'm missing one, but there were five neighborhoods, and we took them students with a gospel track, a VBS postcard, and information of our church to every single house in every one of those neighborhoods.
SPEAKER_01: So let's give a hand to our teenagers.
SPEAKER_01: And let me tell you, it was a hundred degrees, and man, talk about a smelly church van.
SPEAKER_01: But what a blessing we had to go.
SPEAKER_01: And when I thought about all those things, how appropriate as we jump into this parable today.
SPEAKER_01: The opportunity for all of these things is to sow precious seed everywhere that we're able to go.
SPEAKER_01: And so let me pray.
SPEAKER_01: Father, pray that you would bless and help us to understand this parable.
SPEAKER_01: God, help us to understand the meaning of your word, penetrate our hearts with this picture that we have precious seed.
SPEAKER_01: And God, I pray that you would allow us opportunities, creative ways, and means, measures to meet with people that need the precious truth of your gospel.
SPEAKER_01: We love you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: The parable of the sower, Luke chapter 8, starting in verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: And the first point as you jump in there this morning is there is one sower.
SPEAKER_01: Luke chapter 8, verse 5 says, A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it.
SPEAKER_01: Some fell on rock, and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.
SPEAKER_01: And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.
SPEAKER_01: But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.
SPEAKER_01: When he had said these things, he cried, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
SPEAKER_01: First thing I want you to see there is that this picture, it's called the parable of the sower.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to see in a little bit some soils, but it's purposefully called the parable of the sower.
SPEAKER_01: There's one sower in Matthew chapter 13, it's describing another parable, but it says, He who sows the good seed is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's one sower, letter A, the sower is perpetually casting out seed.
SPEAKER_01: And so you're going to see that.
SPEAKER_01: The sower is a picture of a farmer who's spreading seeds.
SPEAKER_01: Do I have any farmers in the house today?
SPEAKER_01: Right.
SPEAKER_01: Do we have anybody who has a garden?
SPEAKER_01: Alright, we're close.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, so we have this picture of one who is spreading seeds in hopes of a harvest.
SPEAKER_01: In John chapter 4, Jesus said to the disciples, You are nourished by food, but my meat is to do the will of the Father who has sent me, and my meat, my nourishment comes from a harvest.
SPEAKER_01: A harvest of souls.
SPEAKER_01: You see, they'd been debating on why Jesus would be talking to the Samaritan woman at the well.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus was telling them, My meat is to do the Father's will.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the disciples had all kinds of distractions, and they had restrictions on the way that they sowed seed in life.
SPEAKER_01: And their restrictions came about by class, by distinction, by gender.
SPEAKER_01: They said, Why would he be spending his time with the Samaritan women?
SPEAKER_01: We don't spend time with Samaritans or women, and they have all these restrictions as sowers.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Jesus as a sower always had seeds.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what it says in the scripture that he did not come for the well, but that he came for the sick.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you, as a church, we're here for the sick.
SPEAKER_01: And you may come in and you come in with a church bias, a restrictive mindset of saying, this is how seeds should be sown, and this is what a person needs to look like for me to spend time with them, or this is who needs to be my type of friend.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you something today, church, that I heard a long time ago.
SPEAKER_01: You've got to catch a fish before it can be cleaned.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't know how I went from farming to fishing, but I get some bonus points with the fishers, right?
SPEAKER_01: You've got to catch a fish.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is a master sower, and his goal is to accomplish the Father's will.
SPEAKER_01: And as a seed planter, that was to plant, to water, and harvest seeds.
SPEAKER_01: There's many measures to cast seed.
SPEAKER_01: And by extension, I want you to know, church, that we are sowers of the master sower.
SPEAKER_01: We are an arm.
SPEAKER_01: Look at your neighbor and say, nice arm.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the other one and say, You got a little work to do.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew 28, 19 and 20 tells us that we're to go, therefore, reaching the world with the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: By an extension, we're an arm of the master sower.
SPEAKER_01: Nature is an arm.
SPEAKER_01: In Psalms 19, it says that the heavens declare the glory of God, so that we're without excuse.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to see another scripture about that.
SPEAKER_01: Turn to Romans chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: They say, What are the arms of God's sowing of seed?
SPEAKER_01: No one is with an excuse.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 1, 18 through 20 says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and all unrighteousness of men, who suppress, what do they suppress?
SPEAKER_01: The truth, the seed, and unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.
SPEAKER_01: For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made.
SPEAKER_01: Even his eternal power, the Godhead, the Trinity, so that they are without excuse.
SPEAKER_01: Nobody can live through this life, according to Romans, by Paul, and look at the world, look at nature and say, There's no God.
SPEAKER_01: He says, They are without an excuse.
SPEAKER_01: Even nature itself, you hear scripture say, if you don't praise them, the rocks will cry out in glory to exalt his name.
SPEAKER_01: And so the heavens declare, and how often have you seen a sunset or a sunrise or went to the ocean and said, Wow! And this speaks to the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see an arm just in nature, an extension of his sowing of seed.
SPEAKER_01: Another extension of sowing seed is giving.
SPEAKER_01: When we give to the work of the Lord, we're giving in a way to help.
SPEAKER_01: When I talk about Deedra going from here to that, I couldn't go to Nepal, and I couldn't go to Zambia, and I couldn't go across the planet like she has, but I sure could give to help it.
SPEAKER_01: And we're giving as an arm.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to know, you are sowing.
SPEAKER_01: You are sowing every day that you breathe, you are sowing.
SPEAKER_01: Galatians 6 7 says, Be not deceived, God is not mocked.
SPEAKER_01: Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.
SPEAKER_01: You are a sower in this life.
SPEAKER_01: You're sowing to something, and you will make no mistake reap something.
SPEAKER_01: So he says there further down in the parable.
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
SPEAKER_01: This is so cool.
SPEAKER_01: If you look down in verse 8, he gives a parable, and then he answers a question that's going to be asked by the previous parable that he gave.
SPEAKER_01: They asked him a question following the parable which he just answered.
SPEAKER_01: Look at what it says in verse 8b.
SPEAKER_01: It says, When he had said these things, he cried, He who has the ears to hear, let him hear.
SPEAKER_01: Then the disciples asked him, saying, What does this parable mean?
SPEAKER_01: Interesting.
SPEAKER_01: Disciples asked this important question in between parables, why did you teach this?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus says to them in verse 10, and he said to you, It's been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest, it's given in parables, seeing that they may not see, and hearing that they may not understand.
SPEAKER_01: That sounds pretty complicated if you're just reading it or hearing it.
SPEAKER_01: What he's saying is, there are some people that are going to understand these parables, because their heart has been opened unto them.
SPEAKER_01: And then he goes on, and the parable before he described seed is cast out, some seed took root, some seed fell on hard ground, hard hearts.
SPEAKER_01: It couldn't understand.
SPEAKER_01: It says some seed fell on thorny.
SPEAKER_01: It says some fit seed fell on stony.
SPEAKER_01: And he's actually describing it as they're getting ready to answer the question.
SPEAKER_01: He says, There are mysteries revealed to those who can understand.
SPEAKER_01: I tell my boys some mysteries of living.
SPEAKER_01: Not so much a mystery, but when they're old enough to find out what it means to be a man, I said, listen, there's four rules as a man.
SPEAKER_01: I said, as a man, this is what you don't do to any other man, Benji.
SPEAKER_01: This is true.
SPEAKER_01: I said, you don't mess with his sleep.
SPEAKER_01: You don't ever mess with a man's sleep.
SPEAKER_01: Don't do it.
SPEAKER_01: Don't mess with his food.
SPEAKER_01: Don't mess with a man's food.
SPEAKER_01: That ain't right.
SPEAKER_01: Don't mess with his money.
SPEAKER_01: Don't touch a man's wallet.
SPEAKER_01: And don't mess with his woman.
SPEAKER_01: If you can do that, you have kept a friend.
SPEAKER_01: Am I right, man?
SPEAKER_01: You can walk out of here now and say, Well, we got enough, Pastor.
SPEAKER_01: And so I tell them what I think is the rules of understanding.
SPEAKER_01: Well, he says, there are certain people at a certain point who will understand, and there's a lot of people who won't.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, You can understand this parable.
SPEAKER_01: There are those four reasons that are our identified previously, and I'm going to say it again, who will not.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see the sower is perpetually, he's casting out seed.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to know something else about the sower.
SPEAKER_01: Letter B.
SPEAKER_01: He's periodically cast down.
SPEAKER_01: What does that mean, Pastor?
SPEAKER_01: Casting seed is unpredictable business.
SPEAKER_01: Ecclesiastes 11 6 gives us a mandate.
SPEAKER_01: Why don't we turn there?
SPEAKER_01: I had a few people raise their hands and said they're gardeners, so you probably need to hear this.
SPEAKER_01: Ecclesiastes 11 6.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know a whole lot about gardening or farming, but I know this.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible tells me some things.
SPEAKER_01: It says this in the morning, sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, either this or that, or whether both alike will be good.
SPEAKER_01: But this is what it tells me.
SPEAKER_01: Cast seed.
SPEAKER_01: It tells me to cast seed.
SPEAKER_01: It's unpredictable.
SPEAKER_01: I've heard it said before that the greatest gamblers on planet earth were farmers.
SPEAKER_01: Because we just don't know.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know when rain's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know when something's gonna take root.
SPEAKER_01: But the reaction I want you to know that Jesus Christ has towards seed production is not robotic.
SPEAKER_01: It's not as if he's just casting seed, and then because he knows the end of the story, that there's no response.
SPEAKER_01: He's impacted by the response to the seed.
SPEAKER_01: How do we know this?
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 4.15 tells us we have not a high priest who could not be touched by the feelings of our infirmities, but was tempted at all points as we are, yet without sin.
SPEAKER_01: He feels the way that we felt.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus Christ was constantly coming and hopeful, and it says he came to seek and to save that which was lost.
SPEAKER_01: He was casting seed, but he was often rejected.
SPEAKER_01: In Luke 19, 41, it says, as he drew near to the city, he saw the city and he wept over the city.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, you see, was overcome by the lostness of a people.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus had healed their sick, he had raised a leper in the city, he had helped them, he had fed them, and for the most part, John 1.11 says he'd been rejected.
SPEAKER_01: It says he came to his own, and his own did not receive him.
SPEAKER_01: It's heartbreaking to watch the lost.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ grieved as a sower.
SPEAKER_01: I want to ask you a question.
SPEAKER_01: Do we grieve over lostness?
SPEAKER_01: When did it become so commonplace to be so busy?
SPEAKER_01: Tied up doing and building of this life that we stopped being broken over lostness.
SPEAKER_01: Do you get upset over lostness?
SPEAKER_01: That family member, that friend, does it grieve you?
SPEAKER_01: We had a girl and a guy in youth mystery went to a place called Sky Zone.
SPEAKER_01: The first time that it was open, we were there within months.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a trampoline park.
SPEAKER_01: And we went to Sky Zone.
SPEAKER_01: We were in there for five minutes.
SPEAKER_01: Haley catapulted into the trampoline, went flying in the air, came down, crashed, and immediately she was taken off to the side.
SPEAKER_01: Something was wrong.
SPEAKER_01: We found out later that it was her knee that had been torn.
SPEAKER_01: And Haley is over there, and she was sitting at a table and she was gutting it out.
SPEAKER_01: She was gritting it out.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't see one tear come down Haley's face.
SPEAKER_01: Didn't really know what was wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Hunter was a 16-year-old boy.
SPEAKER_01: He's jumping and jumping and flying and flipping around.
SPEAKER_01: Hunter later on, about two hours later, comes up and there is tears coming down Hunter's cheek, and I'm like, what is wrong with you, Hunter?
SPEAKER_01: I lost my wallet.
SPEAKER_01: And there was$40 in it.
SPEAKER_01: He was supposed to have a date later that night, and he lost$40.
SPEAKER_01: The Hunter is weeping over his$40.
SPEAKER_01: Haley broke her knee, not a tear.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, what is going on here?
SPEAKER_01: When we look at lostness, does it even impact us?
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever lost your phone?
SPEAKER_01: Your keys, your wallet.
SPEAKER_01: You want to see some dignified people get undignant?
SPEAKER_01: Lose one of these items.
SPEAKER_01: You see Benji up under his bed.
SPEAKER_01: You'll see people all over their car, groveling, right?
SPEAKER_01: You'll be in a place in a restaurant.
SPEAKER_01: I've been in a restaurant before, and I'm sorry, ma'am.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna have to ask you to get up, move the bench, and I'm over in the bench.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's a mess, right?
SPEAKER_01: I lost something that was important to me.
SPEAKER_01: We'll get undignified, unsettled.
SPEAKER_01: What will it take for us to be unsettled over a lost soul?
SPEAKER_01: They're losing out on the most important thing that life will ever have to offer in eternal life.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see that the sower can be cast down.
SPEAKER_01: The second point this morning I want you to see is there is one seed.
SPEAKER_01: Look again, verses 9 through 11.
SPEAKER_01: They ask this question to you has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables.
SPEAKER_01: Seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.
SPEAKER_01: And verse 11.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this the parable is this the seed is the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: So what is the seed?
SPEAKER_01: The seed is the Bible, the seed is the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if y'all grow up singing little songs in Sunday school.
SPEAKER_01: We used to sing a song, the word of God is like itty-bitty seeds scattered all around.
SPEAKER_01: Some in the roads, some in the weeds, but everywhere you look, little bitty seeds.
SPEAKER_01: The word of God is like litty bitty seeds scattered all around.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're to scatter this seed.
SPEAKER_01: Letter A is this the seed needs great cultivation.
SPEAKER_01: Farmers, you understand this.
SPEAKER_01: Proverbs 28, 19 says, He who tills his land will have plenty.
SPEAKER_01: He who works the land, who works different soils will have plenty.
SPEAKER_01: If you rent a tiller, this is what a tiller does.
SPEAKER_01: It heavily disturbs the current soil.
SPEAKER_01: It runs it up.
SPEAKER_01: It creates then an easy-to-plant area.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you, it requires a large amount of labor.
SPEAKER_01: It takes a lot of effort.
SPEAKER_01: If you care about the lostness of a soul, it's going to take cultivation.
SPEAKER_01: It's going to take a lot of effort to get that person to first shed that first layer.
SPEAKER_01: For a person in their lostness to recognize their lostness, they have to look in the mirror, which tells them, I am a person who's sinful and in need of a savior.
SPEAKER_01: And everything on planet earth right now outside of church tells them something else.
SPEAKER_01: You don't need a savior.
SPEAKER_01: You are your own best.
SPEAKER_01: You are your own good.
SPEAKER_01: Just go and do you.
SPEAKER_01: So it takes a lot of cultivation for a heart.
SPEAKER_01: But let me tell you some encouraging truth.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 4 12 says the word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, even to the dividing asunder of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
SPEAKER_01: It's a great tiller that we have.
SPEAKER_01: And it goes and it gets to that heart.
SPEAKER_01: Even to the hard soil, it can get to the heart.
SPEAKER_01: And so we have cultivation within the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: What's that mean practically for you and me?
SPEAKER_01: That means if we want to see fruit in people, we have to talk about the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: This is our practical point.
SPEAKER_01: We talk about a whole lot of things.
SPEAKER_01: We'll catch up, and you guys already, it's starting.
SPEAKER_01: You're talking about Auburn, it's talking about Alabama.
SPEAKER_01: It's going because it's something you think about.
SPEAKER_01: What else do we think about?
SPEAKER_01: What do we think on is what we feed on, and so we have to feed on something to cultivate it in others.
SPEAKER_01: In order to talk about the Bible, it has to be tilling at our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: You talk about what you love and what you're learning.
SPEAKER_01: The psalmist said it this way, Psalms 1, 2, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and he doth meditate on it day and night.
SPEAKER_01: And it says this, and then he will be like a tree planted by rivers of water who will produce fruit in every season.
SPEAKER_01: Are you seeing this?
SPEAKER_01: When I meditate on that word of God, when my heart is tilled by the word of God, I'll be like a fruitful tree.
SPEAKER_01: We need seeds.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I wanted to share with you there's some charts that I came across this week on uh opinions of the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to see this.
SPEAKER_01: Perception of the Bible in America as of 21.
SPEAKER_01: Do you think our country would be worse or better off or about the same without the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: 54% said we would be worse off.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to hold that.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: We believe by and large that we would be worse off without it.
SPEAKER_01: Next chart.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible contains everything a person needs to live a meaningful life.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Agree strongly.
SPEAKER_01: There's 30% that agree strongly, 54% that at least agree on some manner, uh, all the way up to a s strongly agree.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, and so we believe that it's meaningful for life and that we'd be worse off without it.
SPEAKER_01: But let me show you the last chart.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: How many people daily, seven days a week, are in the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: 11%.
SPEAKER_01: It keeps going, four down to several, five percent, nine percent.
SPEAKER_01: There's over, I think the number was fifty two percent that really.
SPEAKER_01: Read it once a month or never at all.
SPEAKER_01: We say we believe in something, yet we're not allowing it to cultivate our own hearts.
SPEAKER_01: And so we have to cultivate the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: We have to get in the Word of God, this would tell us.
SPEAKER_01: So that we're able to till into others.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we're not just called to till the land, we're also called to water.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Corinthians 3, 5 through 9 is a passage that Paul, if you look at the way that it plays out, there's a debate going back and forth who is following the camp of Paul, who is following the camp of Apollos.
SPEAKER_01: And the way that the scripture plays out is this some follow Paul, some Apollos.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, no, no, no, no, no, listen.
SPEAKER_01: One plants seed, one waters seed, but God is the one that gets the increase.
SPEAKER_01: You're following the wrong idea if you think you've got to follow a man.
SPEAKER_01: You're here to follow a God.
SPEAKER_01: So we're called then to plant and we're called to water.
SPEAKER_01: And if you look at the word in that scripture there, it's actually the word servant.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, me and Apollos are servants.
SPEAKER_01: The word broken down servants there is the word for table waiter.
SPEAKER_01: In the analogy, Paul and Apollos, they're not honored guests.
SPEAKER_01: They're not the head of the table.
SPEAKER_01: They're not even the owner of the house.
SPEAKER_01: They're not even the person cooking the food.
SPEAKER_01: They are table workers.
SPEAKER_01: And they come in and say, Hello, my name is Rick.
SPEAKER_01: I'll be serving you today.
SPEAKER_01: Can I start you off with cold water?
SPEAKER_01: And so anyone that you follow, listen to me.
SPEAKER_01: This is what we are.
SPEAKER_01: We're to water.
SPEAKER_01: The purpose was to let you know it wasn't about the person, it was about the drink.
SPEAKER_01: Are you with me?
SPEAKER_01: It is my honor to serve water today, church.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is better than Fiji.
SPEAKER_01: This is living water that we serve.
SPEAKER_01: It's the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus said to the woman at the well, whoever drinks of this water I give, they'll never thirst again.
SPEAKER_01: It'll actually fill you.
SPEAKER_01: A person that's looking for fulfillment in all these ways, it'll fill you.
SPEAKER_01: The word of God is water in a dry and barren land.
SPEAKER_01: It's water in a desert.
SPEAKER_01: You can come with a cool, penning, penetrating glass of truth.
SPEAKER_01: It's refreshing.
SPEAKER_01: In a world of lies and mistruth and agenda and spin.
SPEAKER_01: We have truth.
SPEAKER_01: Truth, the Bible says, sets men free and encourages, it motivates, it challenges.
SPEAKER_01: Letter B this morning is this the seed we sow has great capability.
SPEAKER_01: The seed that we sow, this seed is the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: In Psalms 119, it's called a light.
SPEAKER_01: In James 1, it's called a mirror.
SPEAKER_01: In Jeremiah 23, it's called a fire that burns within my chest.
SPEAKER_01: It's called a hammer that breaks into pieces.
SPEAKER_01: In 1 Peter, it's called food for the hungry soul.
SPEAKER_01: In Deuteronomy, it's called Sweet Morning Dew.
SPEAKER_01: In Ephesians and Hebrews, it's called a sword.
SPEAKER_01: In 1,400 years, over 30 authors, this book remains.
SPEAKER_01: There's 1,189 chapters.
SPEAKER_01: There's 31,173 verses, and it is the book that has lasted the test of time.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible.
SPEAKER_01: It's a traveler's map.
SPEAKER_01: It's a pilgrim's staff.
SPEAKER_01: It's the pilot's compass.
SPEAKER_01: It's the soldier's sword.
SPEAKER_01: It's the Christian's charter.
SPEAKER_01: It should fill your memory and rule your heart.
SPEAKER_01: It should guide your feet because it's a mine of wealth.
SPEAKER_01: It's health to the soul.
SPEAKER_01: It's a pleasurable river.
SPEAKER_01: We have to pray it in and read it through, live it out and pass it on.
SPEAKER_01: It's forever settled in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: This book is eternal.
SPEAKER_01: And they've tried to burn it, they've tried to ban it, they've tried to belittle it, and they've tried to brush it aside.
SPEAKER_01: Decade after decade, century after century, age after age, but it's still the greatest selling book of all time.
SPEAKER_01: It is the B-I-B-L-E.
SPEAKER_01: It's alive, it's vibrant, it's vital.
SPEAKER_01: It is the breathing words of God.
SPEAKER_01: And you can love a lot of books, but this one loves you back.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Can somebody give an amen today?
SPEAKER_01: It's truth.
SPEAKER_01: There's no greater weapon.
SPEAKER_01: There's no greater seed.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we take that seed and we take it into two places.
SPEAKER_01: The third point this morning, the two soils.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 12 through 15, we're going to look at.
SPEAKER_01: There's two soils.
SPEAKER_01: Look what it says.
SPEAKER_01: The seed is the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Those by the wayside are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.
SPEAKER_01: But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, they receive the word with joy.
SPEAKER_01: But these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.
SPEAKER_01: Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity.
SPEAKER_01: But the ones that fell on good ground are those who have having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
SPEAKER_01: So letter A is this bad soil yields a great paralysis.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to think on today for yourself or people that you know, what kind of soil is going on right here?
SPEAKER_01: The first one that he points out is hard ground or the wayside that's mentioned in Matthew, hardened by sin.
SPEAKER_01: The hardened heart is unrepentant.
SPEAKER_01: The hardened heart is a prideful heart.
SPEAKER_01: You see it through scripture in the New Testament, the Pharisees were a picture of a hardened heart.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, they were religious people.
SPEAKER_01: They loved their religion, but they had no relationship with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of religious people in society today running through, but their hearts are hardened.
SPEAKER_01: The Sadducees was another group.
SPEAKER_01: My example for modern day people, there's a lot of religious atheists.
SPEAKER_01: They've made an intellectual decision that this heart is not going to be penetrated by the truth.
SPEAKER_01: The evolutionist today, the agnostic today.
SPEAKER_01: But it's not just limited to those who have hardened their hearts because of informational decisions.
SPEAKER_01: In the Bible, it talks about Pharaoh who had hardened his heart.
SPEAKER_01: There's 14 times in Scripture that the phrase, the heart was hardened, is mentioned.
SPEAKER_01: And out of 14, nine times refer to Pharaoh.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to understand a truth today.
SPEAKER_01: God does, it says, and God hardened Pharaoh's heart.
SPEAKER_01: And to bring clarity to what happened there, it's only after a long track record of disobedience.
SPEAKER_01: Hard-heartedness happens to a person.
SPEAKER_01: It causes a paralysis to the potential of fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the Israelites for 40 years wandered in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because within that same story, their hearts were hardened.
SPEAKER_01: They would not do as they were told, and so they wandered for 40 years.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, there's a scripture in Hebrews that says, don't harden your hearts like as the rebellion, talking about the Israelites wandering in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: These are people that were around God and godly men.
SPEAKER_01: But hard-heartedness happens.
SPEAKER_01: Hard-hearted people are not able to have rest.
SPEAKER_01: It's always a tension.
SPEAKER_01: They're not at peace.
SPEAKER_01: Help me, Pastor.
SPEAKER_01: What does it mean?
SPEAKER_01: Grumpy people.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone know somebody who's grumpy, constantly grumpy?
SPEAKER_01: Negative.
SPEAKER_01: They're stuck.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the sower seed lands and it's landing all around them.
SPEAKER_01: It's in their space.
SPEAKER_01: But their feelings have been hurt.
SPEAKER_01: Someone failed me.
SPEAKER_01: Or they say, I have to give up this sin, and there's just no way.
SPEAKER_01: I can't bear the thought of giving up this thing.
SPEAKER_01: And so my heart has hardened to the reception of what it'll take to surrender.
SPEAKER_01: It's very sad ground.
SPEAKER_01: Hard ground.
SPEAKER_01: And it says they come by the wayside, or the other example we won't really dig in today is that the devil comes when the seeds fall on that hard ground and snatches them up.
SPEAKER_01: Just pulls that away.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's hard ground.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're thinking of a person in your life.
SPEAKER_01: You wish they would come to know the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to understand the types of soil.
SPEAKER_01: Hard-heartedness.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're here today.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to me, church.
SPEAKER_01: And you've been around it a long time, but you have not surrendered your will.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not for lack of seed falling right in your space.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you, he loves you today.
SPEAKER_01: And he wants to soften that heart and change it.
SPEAKER_01: There's hard ground.
SPEAKER_01: The second ground he talked about was stony ground.
SPEAKER_01: Stony ground is scary ground.
SPEAKER_01: Stony ground is a man who professes to have received, to love God's word, but then is never changed.
SPEAKER_01: He professes that there was a time that I received this word.
SPEAKER_01: I received it.
SPEAKER_01: I remember way back at this point in time, and I received that word, and I was over here, but his life never went from over here to this.
SPEAKER_01: I received it.
SPEAKER_01: That made sense intellectually what the pastor said.
SPEAKER_01: I understood, I believed in God.
SPEAKER_01: I received that word, but the will was never broken to change.
SPEAKER_01: Bible says that's stony ground.
SPEAKER_01: It makes me think of some people.
SPEAKER_01: What about Judas?
SPEAKER_01: Judas was with Jesus every day for three years.
SPEAKER_01: Judas saw every miracle that took place in the ministry of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine?
SPEAKER_01: Deaf that could hear, blind that could see, lame that could walk.
SPEAKER_01: Judas was right there feeding a fire.
SPEAKER_01: He saw miraculous things.
SPEAKER_01: What would it take for a man's heart to see all that?
SPEAKER_01: And then for 30 pieces of silver, turn his back.
SPEAKER_01: That tells me something, church.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a heart a thousand miles from Jesus Christ and be right next to him.
SPEAKER_01: You can be here today.
SPEAKER_01: You can be doing the right thing, practicing that habit or tradition of church, and this heart be a thousand miles.
SPEAKER_01: It's a scary thing.
SPEAKER_01: We go to Camp Gotel, and Rick Gage tells students almost every year he was saved at 25, but he grew up in the house of Freddie Gage, who underneath Billy Graham has had the most successful crusade ministry in all of America's history.
SPEAKER_01: Billy Graham led millions.
SPEAKER_01: We'll say that Rick Freddie Gage led hundreds of thousands to Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And Rick Gage grew up in that home claiming Christianity, but he says, my heart was a thousand miles from Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: You can do the work, you can play the part.
SPEAKER_01: But there is a terrifying scripture that says there will come a day where people who worked in Jesus' name will hear this.
SPEAKER_01: The Father will say, Depart from me, I never knew you.
SPEAKER_01: This is scary soil.
SPEAKER_01: Matthew, the version of it told Matthew, says this, it's because they had no rooting.
SPEAKER_01: We just did a whole series called Rooted, and it was about us getting deeper.
SPEAKER_01: It was because they had no rooting.
SPEAKER_01: Those stones got in the way of rooting.
SPEAKER_01: It says, when adversity came, they fell away.
SPEAKER_01: Shallow, no root, not deep.
SPEAKER_01: I grew up with a gravel driveway.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you had this in your life?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Gravel driveway ain't great.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna be honest.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't know what it wants to be.
SPEAKER_01: It's not dirt.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And it's not asphalt, right?
SPEAKER_01: On a gravel driveway, I could not play basketball.
SPEAKER_01: I couldn't walk very good in my bare feet until my feet got used to it.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: And I couldn't ride a bike.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you tried to ride a bike?
SPEAKER_01: It didn't know what it wanted to be.
SPEAKER_01: It's pretty bad when you're about 11 years old and you get pumped because your dad says you're getting asphalt outside.
SPEAKER_01: I was like, yes! We can do some things now.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna have some steady ground.
SPEAKER_01: I remember that stony ground, it's not right.
SPEAKER_01: Understand, it's easy for them to fall away.
SPEAKER_01: For someone on stony ground, they might have seasons.
SPEAKER_01: You'll see them for a while and then be gone.
SPEAKER_01: Because intellectually they're at a struggle.
SPEAKER_01: They believe it's right.
SPEAKER_01: They believe here, but there's nothing here.
SPEAKER_01: It hasn't penetrated.
SPEAKER_01: And so here they go, yes, I know there's a God.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I've seen it with everyone else, like Judas.
SPEAKER_01: I've seen the miracles.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that it's there.
SPEAKER_01: But it hadn't taken root.
SPEAKER_01: You have to surrender, is the point.
SPEAKER_01: There has to be a surrender.
SPEAKER_01: It's not enough to just believe.
SPEAKER_01: Judas, for sure, believed.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says the demons believe and in fear tremble.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you a word that you need to hear.
SPEAKER_01: Soteriology.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, soteriology is the study of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: And there's three things that are involved for a person to be saved.
SPEAKER_01: So if you've been doubting, if you have doubts, if you wonder about your salvation, this is important.
SPEAKER_01: The person who has a stony heart can have an emotional response without change.
SPEAKER_01: They stayed over here.
SPEAKER_01: Intellectually, you can have an intellectual response, and you can have an emotional response, understanding salvation, and still not surrender.
SPEAKER_01: So hear me, for salvation to take place, it's intellect, it's emotion, sorrow for sin, and it's will.
SPEAKER_01: I have to understand, receive that Jesus was God, that Jesus died on the cross, buried, rose again for my sins.
SPEAKER_01: I have to have an intellectual, yes, that is right, acceptance, you hear a lot.
SPEAKER_01: And then I have to have an emotion for myself.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, I'm repenting of my sins and a change.
SPEAKER_01: If that is not the case, then salvation may not be sure.
SPEAKER_01: So we've seen stony ground.
SPEAKER_01: A third thing that was mentioned was thorny ground.
SPEAKER_01: Man who again professes to receive the word, but whose heart is full of the pleasures of this life.
SPEAKER_01: There's some people here who have been saved, and the world has gotten you by the throat.
SPEAKER_01: That's the picture of this thorny ground.
SPEAKER_01: And you're barely breathing, and you're gasping by for the next thing, and you can't understand with all of what you have and all that you get to do, why you can't feel filled.
SPEAKER_01: You're not happy.
SPEAKER_01: You're being strangled with what seems like good things pleasure, power, possessions.
SPEAKER_01: They don't seem evil.
SPEAKER_01: And your mind goes, if I can just attain to that next step, if I can just get to that next place, that next high.
SPEAKER_01: And what's really happening is you're getting caught up in thorns.
SPEAKER_01: It hurts going in and it hurts going out.
SPEAKER_01: They leave scars.
SPEAKER_01: Tell me today, somebody named me one good thing about thorns.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: My friend Mark, we were playing some tackle football, and there were these railroad ties going down one lane, and we were playing.
SPEAKER_01: Mark gets smacked, falls over a tie.
SPEAKER_01: I don't even know how this happened.
SPEAKER_01: You just have to bend Mark.
SPEAKER_01: You know, some of y'all have friends like that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how it happened, but it was Mark.
SPEAKER_01: Mark flipped around, 360.
SPEAKER_01: He ended up in a thorn sticker bush, and he's all up in the thing, mangled in the thing.
SPEAKER_01: And we're like, come on, Mark, get out.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, I can't.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, what do you mean you can't?
SPEAKER_01: He's like, I'm stuck.
SPEAKER_01: I'm stuck in all these thorns.
SPEAKER_01: And the whole time he's going out, he's yelling, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, this is terrible.
SPEAKER_01: It made me think about people that are just overcome.
SPEAKER_01: It's like we're all captivated in everything that the world throws at us.
SPEAKER_01: And because of it, we just don't have the time.
SPEAKER_01: We just don't have the vision for what this is.
SPEAKER_01: We just are so caught up with the world's stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Galatians 6, 7 through 9 says it's impossible to sow to the flesh and reap of the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: It is impossible to be caught up in all of that, sowing in all that and reap spiritual things.
SPEAKER_01: Even if you're doing good in the name of those things, you will not reap spiritual things.
SPEAKER_01: It ain't gonna make your kids spiritual because you're over here becoming successful in this name.
SPEAKER_01: We get caught up.
SPEAKER_01: We get caught up in the brush.
SPEAKER_01: You are going to reap something from what you're sowing.
SPEAKER_01: What are you sowing to your family, man?
SPEAKER_01: What are you sowing to your kids' parents?
SPEAKER_01: Grandparents.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's a reaping coming.
SPEAKER_01: When I think about those thorns, I thought about what did Jesus think when Jesus looked at thorns.
SPEAKER_01: I got this.
SPEAKER_01: I got to thinking about what was it like for Jesus to think about thorns when he gives this picture.
SPEAKER_01: I think Jesus probably said, I hate thorns.
SPEAKER_01: I hate that something with the possibility of so much beauty that has so much potential to flourish is being caught up in this.
SPEAKER_01: One day I can tell you how these are going to be used.
SPEAKER_01: They choke out people that I love.
SPEAKER_01: And they can't see me because of these awful things.
SPEAKER_01: I believe Jesus hated thorns.
SPEAKER_01: Let her be.
SPEAKER_01: So as much as in me, I'm ready to preach the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Paul talked about the fruit of winning souls.
SPEAKER_01: And so if my heart is good soil, there should be something in me that wants to win souls for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He says, that is a fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 6.22 says, but now having been set free from sin, become slaves, God, you have the fruit of holiness.
SPEAKER_01: Talks about your character.
SPEAKER_01: So he says, the Christians' fruit should be of good moral character.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 15 27 says, For if Gentiles have been partakers of spiritual things, their duty is also to minister to them in material things.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, when I have performed this and sealed to them this fruit, he says, That fruit was the fruit of sharing material things.
SPEAKER_01: It shouldn't be a difficult thing for me to share of my material goods, if I have good soil.
SPEAKER_01: And then Galatians 5 22 and 25.
SPEAKER_01: Which I mentioned is the fruit of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews 13 says this that let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of our lips.
SPEAKER_01: So a person that has good soil will be able to be thankful.
SPEAKER_01: You ever get around somebody and they just can't say a good word?
SPEAKER_01: Back to that grumpy person, right?
SPEAKER_01: Look.
SPEAKER_01: We should be evil to easily with good soil.
SPEAKER_01: That means this heart is tilled, the word of God is taken.
SPEAKER_01: I'm able to be thankful.
SPEAKER_01: I'm able to share.
SPEAKER_01: I'm able to have the fruit of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: I'm able to be a witness.
SPEAKER_01: Well, what does it say about these things?
SPEAKER_01: He says that God provides the increase.
SPEAKER_01: This is important to note.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to be looking at this next week in the parable of the talents.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: God gives the increase and the giftedness.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, for some it's 30, for some it's 60, for some it's a hundredfold.
SPEAKER_01: I was thinking about that and uh closing this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Heather and I have had the privilege to serve God in ministry for 17 years.
SPEAKER_01: And we've had the opportunity to serve and till and water at the hearts.
SPEAKER_01: I give an estimate, maybe six to eight hundred teenagers.
SPEAKER_01: And now for a year to this adult body, this church.
SPEAKER_01: And somewhere early in my ministry, you see, I like I like this.
SPEAKER_01: And I like a lot of people at everything I'm doing.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm having people over for dinner, I want the most.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Heather, Heather is really good at getting in, and the person next to her, they might be her best friend forever.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be everybody's friend forever.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Now not maybe not best friend, but everybody's friend.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: When she gets in, she's deep.
SPEAKER_01: But God taught me early on.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I would go to a church and I want to say hi to everybody.
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I if if we're having a youth group activity, there's no reason to have something for seven people.
SPEAKER_01: We need 107.
SPEAKER_01: And so my heart was like captivated by the masses, but God taught me somewhere earlier.
SPEAKER_01: I think someone told me, listen, Rick, the victory is the one that's in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: So I had a lot of van rides, going teen activities, and there's always one sitting in the front seat, and that was my cue, God.
SPEAKER_01: That's my one today.
SPEAKER_01: That's the one.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to tell you about some ones.
SPEAKER_01: Because I can't tell you about six or seven hundred teenagers.
SPEAKER_01: Can't even really picture them.
SPEAKER_01: But I can tell you about a few ones.
SPEAKER_01: Let me tell you about Matt French.
SPEAKER_01: Matt works for the post office and has served his God faithfully.
SPEAKER_01: He teaches the Bible when he's given opportunity.
SPEAKER_01: Matt married Haley, who they met in youth group.
SPEAKER_01: Heather was the matchmaker, matchmaker, make me a match.
SPEAKER_01: And Haley is co-director of the Hope Pregnancy Center.
SPEAKER_01: And when I think about that one, they just had a baby.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought this, I looked at the baby and said, that baby's gonna grow up in a godly Christian home that I at one point had a chance to water.
SPEAKER_01: Or what about Claire Grag Steiner?
SPEAKER_01: Claire is a music teacher and missionary to little boys and girls in Quito, Ecuador.
SPEAKER_01: Or what about one Grace Hackleman that I got to go on a mission trip, was on a mission trip with Grace, and a dog came up and bit her leg, and she was walking on a mission trip with, and Grace, I'll never forget her reaction.
SPEAKER_01: It was like the godliest reaction.
SPEAKER_01: Oh shoot! Oh shoot! Oh if there was ever a time to say something bad, this might have been it, Grace.
SPEAKER_01: Oh shoot.
SPEAKER_01: Grace is now a teacher and missionary in Haiti.
SPEAKER_01: Or one Micah Kelly.
SPEAKER_01: Micah can sing, but God's got his heart.
SPEAKER_01: And Micah is now an assistant pastor at Woodland Bible Church.
SPEAKER_01: Or what about Claire Presson?
SPEAKER_01: Probably saying that wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Claire cracked me up as a teenager.
SPEAKER_01: Just quiet.
SPEAKER_01: Claire is now married to Dylan, and Claire is a youth pastor's wife.
SPEAKER_01: Every time we get around her, she wants to find out what Heather has to say about youth ministry.
SPEAKER_01: What about Raylan McLaughlin, who I come week after week and almost always serves and is behind a camera serving this church body?
SPEAKER_01: What about that one?
SPEAKER_01: To have had the chance to speak seed and bring water and watch fruit begin to produce is one of the most beautiful callings on planet Earth.
SPEAKER_01: Look around, see if your kids are in the room, church.
SPEAKER_01: What about one Joe Daniels?
SPEAKER_01: Joe's on a mission trip now.
SPEAKER_01: Joe came to my youth ministry for a girl, and he was lost.
SPEAKER_01: And now there's not a whole lot of weeks that I don't see him and his wife Michaela ministering, and I don't get weepy seeing a kid who I knew was lost without Christ leading our church in worship.
SPEAKER_01: Seed.
SPEAKER_01: Water.
SPEAKER_01: It is my joy to sow seed to Callie, White, and Weston Wright.
SPEAKER_01: It is a joy to sow seed.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna ask parents, mentors, disciplers in a moment to make a seed commitment today.
SPEAKER_01: In just a minute, I want you to think about the future of CCW and this generation.
SPEAKER_01: And will you make a seed commitment to plant and to water and to till and to speak the Word of God?
SPEAKER_00: We're excited you joined us for today's message.
SPEAKER_00: Our heart is to connect with others in our community, to grow with one another, and build a bigger kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: If you accepted Jesus today, we want to hear about it.
SPEAKER_00: Take a moment and text CCWConnect to 94,000.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you again for joining us on the CCW podcast.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you'll make plans to join us in person on Sundays.