SPEAKER_01: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_01: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit GrandProKway.org.
SPEAKER_00: Praise God for this incredible time of worship.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: What better gift for your birthday can you can have than being surrounded by so many passionate people, passionate for Jesus, for the word, for church, for fellowship, for Romania.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much, Pastor Neil, and the pastors of this church for allowing me to be here with my wife Adina to just share from the word with you and to just fellowship with you, to worship with you.
SPEAKER_00: It's such a great, great honor.
SPEAKER_00: God is really uh spoiling us.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I was telling your missions pastor uh a few minutes ago that um I have some passages in my notes that are in Romanian, so if I start um if you start hearing something new, um I'm not speaking in tongues, uh, he has to come and and to translate.
SPEAKER_00: So it's it's his fault.
SPEAKER_00: Um he trusted me.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do that because I don't want to skip lunch, I don't want to to not be invited back.
SPEAKER_00: Uh let's let's look in the word of God this morning in uh Matthew 13, in the parable of the sower.
SPEAKER_00: It's a parable of understanding the true conversion to the saving faith.
SPEAKER_00: It's a parable that will challenge us to spread the seeds of the gospel, to to share the good news with people.
SPEAKER_00: If we are the right people, uh we will do the right uh thing for God.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and this parable will will really challenge us um to the core of our hearts because it's really about some hearts, about four hearts, represented by four types of soil.
SPEAKER_00: Let's read from from verse one.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't understand my my accent, my um English, please uh blame your pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat by the seaside.
SPEAKER_00: Great multitudes gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat and sat, and all the all the multitudes stood on the beach.
SPEAKER_00: He spoke to them many things in parables, saying, Behold, a farmer went out to sow.
SPEAKER_00: As he sowed, some seeds fell by the roadside, and the birds came and devoured them.
SPEAKER_00: Others fell on rocky ground where they didn't have much soil, and immediately they sprang up because they had no depth of earth.
SPEAKER_00: When the sun had risen, uh they were scorched.
SPEAKER_00: Because they they had no root, they uh withered away.
SPEAKER_00: Others fell among th thorns.
SPEAKER_00: The thorns grew up and choked them.
SPEAKER_00: Others fell on good soil and yelled uh yelled it fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Some one hundred times as much, some thirty and some uh some sixty and some some thirty.
SPEAKER_00: He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples came and said to him, Why do you speak to them in parables?
SPEAKER_00: He answered them, To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but it is not given to them.
SPEAKER_00: For whoever has to him will be given, and he who uh and he will have abundance.
SPEAKER_00: But whoever does not have from him will be taken away even that which he has.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they don't see, and hearing they don't hear, neither they do understand.
SPEAKER_00: In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, By hearing you will hear, and will uh in no way understand, seeing uh you will see, and in no way you will perceive, for this people's heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, they have closed their eyes, or else perhaps they might perceive with with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and would turn again, and I would heal them.
SPEAKER_00: But blessed are your e your eyes, for they see, and your ears for they hear.
SPEAKER_00: For most certainly I tell you that many prophets and righteous men desire to see the things which you see and didn't see them, and to hear the things which you hear and they didn't hear them.
SPEAKER_00: Hear then the parable of the farmer.
SPEAKER_00: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and doesn't understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away that which has been sown in the heart, in his heart.
SPEAKER_00: This is what uh this is what was sown by the roadside.
SPEAKER_00: What was sown on the rocky uh rocky places, this is uh he who hears the word and immediately with joy receives it.
SPEAKER_00: Yet he has no root in himself, but endures for for a while.
SPEAKER_00: When oppression and persecution arises, because of the word, because of the word, immediately he stumbles.
SPEAKER_00: What was sown among the thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becomes unfruitful.
SPEAKER_00: What was sown on the good ground, this is he who hears the word and understands it, who most certainly bears fruit and produces some 100 times as much, some 60 and some 30.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is presented by um Matthew, former text collector, Israelite, um Jew.
SPEAKER_00: He's presented as a king.
SPEAKER_00: All over the book of Matthew, you you will see his kingdom, you will see this terminology, um, he's he's the king.
SPEAKER_00: Other uh uh other gospels present him as as like John presents him as God, uh Luke presents him as man, uh Mark presents him as a servant.
SPEAKER_00: Um but Matthew wants the people of Israel to know him as king, and from the first begin from the very beginning, from the first chapter, he presents his um uh his line, the uh Davidic line, his uh royal line.
SPEAKER_00: Um and uh he gets to the point of of to a very tough point to a turning point actually in his ministry.
SPEAKER_00: If you look in the context in chapter 12, it is the um the the crucial point of of Christ's ministry where uh people started um perceiving him as the king, as the son of David, and and they started to rumor in the crowds this is this is Messiah.
SPEAKER_00: And the religious leaders are very offended, and they they try to stop him, and immediately they they commit the sin um that is uh unpardonable.
SPEAKER_00: They they come they consider Jesus Satan, they he Satan's messenger.
SPEAKER_00: They say, You are working with Satan, you are working with with the demons, you are working with the uh the spirit of Belzebul, the the Lord of flies, and and uh uh you are not actually a messenger from God.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is turning um away from them, he's postponing the the kingdom for for them, for the Jews, and he's giving the kingdom, and he starts speaking uh starts speaking in parables from that on from that point on, he gives a series of parables, almost 40 parables.
SPEAKER_00: Um, of course, he he spoke, repeated them uh all over where he went, uh, and he's giving the kingdom uh to other people because the nation of Israel hardened their hearts and they didn't want to receive their king.
SPEAKER_00: So the message continues even today.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the same message that Jesus had in the beginning, the first message um repent and believe that for the kingdom of God is um uh at hand, is is close to you, has has arrived.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is the same message that we are preaching today, because that's very relevant in a culture of our days and in Jesus' culture, um, people were so uh so far, so um um away from from the the kingdom, though they perceived themselves as part of the kingdom, as sons of Abraham, as being born into the kingdom, just because they were circumcised, just because some rituals were operated on them, they they simply thought that they are a part of the kingdom, and when in reality uh they were not, and John the Baptist is denying that, he's calling them to repentance um for not being into the kingdom and being part of the kingdom uh and showing that through a baptism, a ritual uh that was just for heathens, just for Greeks and for Romans or other people that were wanting to be become part of uh this message.
SPEAKER_00: Um and that was outrageous for the for the religious system.
SPEAKER_00: They could not believe that people, thousands of them, embrace the baptism that was reserved for the heathens.
SPEAKER_00: That was a very offensive thing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that's why they they uh cooperate with the the uh Herod to kill him.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is is continuing the message of John the Baptist, um, and is he saying, Hey, I am the I am the good news for for you to be part of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Stop trusting the the rabbinic traditions, stop trusting in the man-made rules and and um regulations.
SPEAKER_00: Stop stop putting your trust in what you can do, trust me.
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's what we are doing when we preach, right?
SPEAKER_00: We we are telling people about a person, not necessarily uh we're not prescribing a list of things to do and not to do, because we we believe that uh our salvation is in and our good news is a person that fulfilled all the law that we could not fulfill.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to be um we don't want to burden, we don't want to be burdened with the the consequences of not being able to fulfill the law.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we rest on Jesus who's perfect, he's the only perfect one.
SPEAKER_00: We are not perfect.
SPEAKER_00: We're not we're not here today to brag about our our state, spiritual state.
SPEAKER_00: We just want to praise Jesus for who he is, for the good news that he gave us, that delivers us, that gives us freedom and joy, and takes away all the burden of of trying to be perfect, to perform some something before God.
SPEAKER_00: You in reality you will never be able to accomplish anything.
SPEAKER_00: So the message goes on, the message of the kingdom, and we still pray uh thy kingdom come.
SPEAKER_00: Our uh his kingdom is in is in our hearts, it's not visible, it's it's right there.
SPEAKER_00: And and it's it's sometimes it's hard to distinguish.
SPEAKER_00: Um, is he in the kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: Is she in the kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: Um, are they in the kingdom?
SPEAKER_00: Of course, Jesus is not is not calling us to put labels on people.
SPEAKER_00: Labels are for jars, not for people, right?
SPEAKER_00: Um we we are not called to point fingers to people, we are called to to just let um uh God work in our hearts and and live in such a way and preach in such a way as I heard uh in Louisville uh this week and past week in uh in together for the gospel conference with 12,000 people and all my heroes of faith.
SPEAKER_00: One of them said, uh, live and preach in such a way that people in your church would really notice the difference between real Christians and false Christians.
SPEAKER_00: It's not your responsibility to start differentiating between goats and and and sheep, right?
SPEAKER_00: It's it's your job to just live your faith, and and this message is calling us to check to test our hearts to see if we are in the faith, because it gives us uh four four ways to to see to check our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: They're crucial, then these ways are very important because it has to do with the word.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is emphasizing before he explains the the parable, which is very simple, and uh it should it shouldn't take any any time, uh it should shorten the sermon for your joy.
SPEAKER_00: Um he he gives the the interpretation, and that's the easiest thing.
SPEAKER_00: We wish all the passages in the Bible would be like that, but not not all of them are that like that.
SPEAKER_00: They necessitate a lot of work to go and to interpret.
SPEAKER_00: But here Jesus just gives you the interpretation, and uh between the parable and the interpretation, he he emphasizes the importance of hearing because the the kingdom of God has to do with the hearing, with the words.
SPEAKER_00: It's unbelievable how how God's word um uh remained over the generations.
SPEAKER_00: And um, I was telling um um earlier in the morning, uh I was telling the people that were here about the um the museum of the Bible that I got to visit um uh last week.
SPEAKER_00: It's unbelievable, it broke my heart to get into the third floor.
SPEAKER_00: If you go there, if you ever go there in Washington to the Museum of the Bible, just go to the third third floor, start with that, and you'll be broken, and then you'll cry the whole day.
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh because you will you will see the impact of God, God's hand, caring for his um word that will never change, will remain the same.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing, no kingdom, no, no, no rule, uh, no ruler of the the world will change his word.
SPEAKER_00: It's sovereign, it's what what once it was uttered, it will stay, it will uh take the history in that direction where he where he where where it's appointed to to be taken.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it's unbelievable uh to see that presentation in the most sophisticated technology that is is uh available um nowadays.
SPEAKER_00: So let's get into the the um the first soil that has to do with with um with the word of God as he saw it, some seeds fell uh by the roadside and the birds came and devoured them.
SPEAKER_00: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and doesn't understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away uh that which has been sown in the heart, the hardened heart.
SPEAKER_00: This is the first the first um um symbol here, the first uh soil.
SPEAKER_00: The fields in Jesus' times were separated by trails and paths that were beaten, that were um that were beaten by the sun, by the winds, by the feet of the animals, of the people that were traveling uh between these fields.
SPEAKER_00: Seed, seed falling on on that type of ground, couldn't penetrate it, couldn't uh produce anything.
SPEAKER_00: And even though the seed had a little um point on it, it that didn't allow uh to get into the ground and um to to just come to life.
SPEAKER_00: This type of soil, this type of soil symbolizes the hardened heart, the callous heart.
SPEAKER_00: This this represents the hearer, the listener that is in apathy, that is is callous, that is um uh hardened, that doesn't want to understand, doesn't want to hear the gospel, the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Uh the gospel is is completely not uh having any contact with his heart.
SPEAKER_00: These type of people are are not saved.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord warns about about this type of heart that can be um can become callous and hardened um um as the sin keeps keeps continuing and it becomes insensitive to the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And the world is is filled with with so many we were there one time.
SPEAKER_00: The heart, this type of heart doesn't doesn't know repentance, doesn't know regret for sin, this type of heart doesn't know any any feeling of of guilt before God, and there's no no preoccupation for the things of God, uh things referring God and and life, eternal life, spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: This heart come is complacent um into the evil thoughts, into um hidden sins and all of these uh things that are are uh uh a disgrace to God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the heart that is is described in the book of Proverbs as the heart that believes that God does not exist, it doesn't hear, it despises the wisdom, it's locked.
SPEAKER_00: And men, the man represented here is so bored with the calling of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: There are so many people like like this.
SPEAKER_00: You can you can pour trucks of seeds and you can present them the gospel one thousand times and and they're still blocked and they're still uh non-responsive.
SPEAKER_00: And anytime you you meet them again, you gotta start again from from the same point where where you left them.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we believe in in Romania, and you believe here for sure that uh evangelism is something that is done on on the long term.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's a responsibility that it that takes time, it's not something uh um in instantaneously that that brings results uh just uh so easily.
SPEAKER_00: No, it takes time, and and you sometimes it takes 40 times, sometimes it takes, I don't know, in in in Romania, in one of the villages that you are partnering with, uh a man is is 73, he's coming, he came to church a month ago for the first time in his life with a wife that is crying for him and is praying for him every day.
SPEAKER_00: She's a member of the church, uh of the Baptist church there in Nohaba.
SPEAKER_00: And and he's doing that, you know why?
SPEAKER_00: Because his daughter that he loves a lot is on the verge of getting divorced, and his heart is broken now.
SPEAKER_00: God allowed things to to go through suffering, through tough times.
SPEAKER_00: This this type of heart needs regeneration, this type of heart needs a a huge, uh a divine change of desires.
SPEAKER_00: The desires of this heart, of this type of heart that we had one time, the desires are not after God.
SPEAKER_00: As Jonathan Edwards uh was saying in the 1700s, um uh a heart like this is morally incapable to choose God.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot choose God if you don't desire God.
SPEAKER_00: That's why you need to have that change, that regeneration that we call regeneration, that the Bible calls regeneration, in order that you would desire God and that you will choose God.
SPEAKER_00: That's why we only believe in free in free will after we are converted, after we are regenerated.
SPEAKER_00: God is not at our mercy, God is not in the corner uh at our disposal, and and he's crying there in a corner, and and we are the sovereign uh beings, uh, allowing him to get in our lives only when we want.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: He has to change our heart, he has to change our desires, and then morally we would be able to accept him and to enjoy him and to listen to him and to uh obey him and to love him forever.
SPEAKER_00: We pray for people uh with callous hearts, we pray for people that do not desire God at all, that need this supreme, uh divine, uh supernatural intervention that only God can bring.
SPEAKER_00: And and listen to this a person like this doesn't necessarily uh is an anti-religious person.
SPEAKER_00: It can be very religious, it can be very uh it can have feelings of fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I've been to church, oh I feel so good.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I've been to Easter service, I've been to Christmas service, I feel so good.
SPEAKER_00: Uh religion can give you, can release you a feeling of uh of fulfillness and you you you feel good, but nothing, nothing uh uh out of a heart like this is accomplishing anything for your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation is from the Lord, it's from God.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation comes from God and is is continued through God.
SPEAKER_00: Never broken up, never softened by conviction, never softened by repentance, never softened by uh self-searching.
SPEAKER_00: The heart grows grows callous, the terrors of the Lord aren't frightening, and the love of the Lord isn't even winsome.
SPEAKER_00: The seed is good, the sour is okay, but the heart is unplowed.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this morning for for the Lord to plow the hearts of the people here in Romania too.
SPEAKER_00: Romania is very religious, it's a country that is one of the most religious countries on earth.
SPEAKER_00: A statement by a professor of ours from California that comes to a seminary that we are housing housing.
SPEAKER_00: Um he's been to 120 countries and um he he was facing the the toughness of our religious country and he's he said it's tough soil.
SPEAKER_00: Tough soil.
SPEAKER_00: So pray pray for Romanians to experience repentance and and salvation and a change of desires, that they would desire God because of God.
SPEAKER_00: The second soil is is the uh um the superficial heart.
SPEAKER_00: Others fell on rocky ground.
SPEAKER_00: When you when you hear rocky ground, when you hear about rocks, don't don't don't don't think that were those people in uh Israel in those times were neglect uh negligent about their lands, about their fields.
SPEAKER_00: They did not have lots of rocks and were not able to take care of the their fields.
SPEAKER_00: Um here Jesus is referring to the the soil that was very thin, was fertile.
SPEAKER_00: Soil, fertile, very very fertile on the surface, but under this very thin level of soil was rock, was rocky, all over, all over the place.
SPEAKER_00: So when the seeds get into such a soil, which is the superficial heart, the moisture that was originally in the plant evaporated in the heat of the sun.
SPEAKER_00: And when the roots tried to get more moisture, there wasn't any way to go down and get it, and the plant burned and died and was unproductive.
SPEAKER_00: And there was no result.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is not saying that salvation occurred in such a heart, and all of a sudden something happened and it disappeared, or this person uh lost their salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Never.
SPEAKER_00: This represents uh a very shallow um uh and very false idea of conversion.
SPEAKER_00: Um it's a superficial and fugitive and a false conversion.
SPEAKER_00: This hearts, this heart is is enthusiastic, but it's not profound, uh, is not deep.
SPEAKER_00: It does not involve the thinking, uh it's not involving the taking in consideration of the cost of discipleship of following Christ when when you hear the message, when God speaks to you.
SPEAKER_00: You don't take in consideration what is at stake following Jesus, it's just uh uh mere emotion, it's uh some euphoric state without a real understanding of what it means to become a disciple, and uh a superficial answer like this.
SPEAKER_00: It's uh epidemic in our century, in the 21st century, there are so many people that uh are presenting the gospel in a distorted way, in a deformed way, uh therapeutical way, a gospel of prosperity.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody wants to to embrace prosperity, everybody wants to to get rid of problems, everybody wants to come out of dilemmas, of disaster disasters, everybody wants to be healed from the wounds created by people that that hurt hurt them.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody wants to get rid of problems.
SPEAKER_00: So when you when you present a gospel like this without the implications of sin and and following Christ all of your life, paying the price, everybody's answering, everybody's responding in a positive way.
SPEAKER_00: But later it's it's the problems occur.
SPEAKER_00: I was talking to a pastor and his wife in uh Detroit, um, that was last year in December, and um uh they were uh worrying about their situation in their church, and they said, um we don't know, we we baptized so many people this year, but we have a problem.
SPEAKER_00: We don't we don't see them.
SPEAKER_00: We don't we don't we don't see them.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know where they disappeared.
SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad that this morning the church is is packed, is almost packed.
SPEAKER_00: It's you you you have a problem, you don't have enough seats.
SPEAKER_00: That's a good problem.
SPEAKER_00: That's praise Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Um I pray that you would continue to to present the gospel um centered in Christ, presenting the real cost to be a Christian could cost you a relationship, it would cause you your family to turn against you.
SPEAKER_00: It happened so many times in our villages where where when we had disciples, families turn against them and deny them and and and treat them like garbage just because they were born Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, and they have to die Greek Orthodox.
SPEAKER_00: That's the greatest sin that you can commit.
SPEAKER_00: To change your religion, to be baptized, and to follow this crazy uh I don't know, cults.
SPEAKER_00: They consider us cults.
SPEAKER_00: There will be a real price to pay.
SPEAKER_00: It's the most joyous life there is there is, but it is a uh a cross-bearing.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta take take up your cross.
SPEAKER_00: And in Jesus' days, this was not anything uh this was not a message uh uh that was very abstract.
SPEAKER_00: No, it was simple.
SPEAKER_00: Take up your cross.
SPEAKER_00: That means that meant be ready to die physically, as you follow me.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus had crowds, multitudes, like thousands of people that follow him.
SPEAKER_00: He he looks successful in John 6.
SPEAKER_00: After they had lunch, after they had dinner, they came to him, they had a feast there, uh, eating fish and bread and sandwiches and all that, and and they they enjoyed life.
SPEAKER_00: And and in the morning they woke up, they were hungry, and they want they looked for more food, and they said, Where is Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: Where is our gin in a bottle?
SPEAKER_00: We want more food, we want a better life.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look for him.
SPEAKER_00: So they they they found him in John 6, and and Jesus knew their hearts, Jesus knew their motivation, and they he knew that there's nothing real there.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they even contradict him, they compare him with Moses that gave the people of Israel 40 years of the mana, when in reality God did that, not Moses.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus is trying to test their hearts and says, is challenging them and tells them, drink my blood and eat my body if you if you want to follow me and be followers of God.
SPEAKER_00: And when they hear this type of cannibalism, they in their mind they are in shock and they say, What is this?
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to follow you, we don't want to, we don't want to identify with you.
SPEAKER_00: And they're scared and they leave, and only 12 people remain.
SPEAKER_00: You have the words of life.
SPEAKER_00: That's a good time when Peter utters something positive.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you have the words of life, it has to do with the words, they all pay the price for the word.
SPEAKER_00: James was the first one that died, the brother of John, and John was the last the last one.
SPEAKER_00: They they all pay the price.
SPEAKER_00: When they were not changed completely by God, they asked for fire from heaven to to kill the people.
SPEAKER_00: They were not compassionate, they were not changed, but when the Lord is changing them, they show so much compassion for the people around them.
SPEAKER_00: And and from the sons of thunder, they become the sons of love.
SPEAKER_00: And then the the the apostle of love, John, is loving and he's writing the best things on on love in in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Enthusiasm is is is is there in the heart that is superficial, the seed is coming to life, seems to come to life for a while.
SPEAKER_00: Uh people are um this this type of people, listen to this, these type of people are the most disappointing people for pastors, for for people that want to do discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to do discipleship and you invest money, energy, time from your life, from your schedule, from your family, you you will be so disappointed uh by people that are are shallow, they are superficial with a heart uh superficial heart.
SPEAKER_00: So be on guard against conversions that are all smiles and cheers when when there's no sense of repentance and humility.
SPEAKER_00: When God changed the hearts of two people uh recently in our in our work in January and in February, two young people came to the Lord and they they both cried in separate places.
SPEAKER_00: Um they didn't know each other.
SPEAKER_00: They cried for their sins and they felt they felt that that burden of the sin, the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and they they keep coming.
SPEAKER_00: They did not skip a meeting and and they want the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And that that's what a conversion is.
SPEAKER_00: When when you follow Jesus, when you when you cry for your sins and you you continue.
SPEAKER_00: You continue.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just crying, of course.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just uh contrition and sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: The worldly heart is the third, the third type of soil.
SPEAKER_00: Um it's the word it's the heart preoccupied with the earth uh earthly things.
SPEAKER_00: Weedy soil represents uh a heart that uh tries to serve two masters, the two masters, God and money.
SPEAKER_00: And money, I know it's a very sensitive problem.
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the most sensitive problems.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want anybody to touch our wallets.
SPEAKER_00: Um but uh the way we uh perceive money, the way we look for money, the way we administrate our money speaks tons about about our spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: Um Adina, my wife, uh translated uh material of almost 400 pages on biblical economics, one one course from our seminary.
SPEAKER_00: It it was powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Uh money um can uh can be a blessing and can be a curse.
SPEAKER_00: Um the things of the world uh can be a blessing for you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not here to to uh try to feel anybody uh to make anybody feel guilty because that's awful.
SPEAKER_00: Uh if you if you do that, we want to let the Holy Spirit do that.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I don't want to to um point anything any finger to Americans.
SPEAKER_00: I want to just tell you what's going on in Romania.
SPEAKER_00: Romania has lost over 5 million people in the last 10 to 12 years.
SPEAKER_00: Uh without a war, we are worse than Syria.
SPEAKER_00: Because people left Romania, they went to look for money and for material things.
SPEAKER_00: Because when communism fell, um uh we opened our eyes uh towards the material things of Western world, of Europe, and we said, we want we want to have that.
SPEAKER_00: We want to have what they have, we want to have more than what they have.
SPEAKER_00: So families were destroyed, kids were committed suicide because they were left uh by themselves, or they were left with their grandparents, and and uh there was such a mess, and and there is such a mess.
SPEAKER_00: And people are still unfulfilled, and people are looking for for material things um, and that's not bad.
SPEAKER_00: It's not bad to have material things, it's not bad to have money to to be uh prosperous.
SPEAKER_00: Um the the the point is how do you how do you pursue uh these uh things as your God as or as a gift from God?
SPEAKER_00: Do you treat your things as a as a gift from God?
SPEAKER_00: Do you do you consider everything you have something from God and you see this is my this is God's car, this is God's house, this is God's um money uh job.
SPEAKER_00: If you do that, you you are successful no matter where you are activating or moving and serving.
SPEAKER_00: Um you you know already the the the encounter of Jesus with the rich are rich and ruler.
SPEAKER_00: He was the Bible says that he was extremely rich in uh in Luke 18.
SPEAKER_00: And he he was very sad when Jesus is calling him not to gain his salvation by being uh charitable but by obeying to his word.
SPEAKER_00: He left.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is not negotiating, Jesus is not calling, hey, let's let's negotiate 50-50 or let's do something here.
SPEAKER_00: No, the last the last um type of soil, and I think I ran out of time.
SPEAKER_00: Um the fruitful soil, bearing fruit is the the positive.
SPEAKER_00: This is the real salvation, this is the real uh soil that uh will encounter the message and will bring fruit, and this is the proof of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Uh in in the uh farming uh world, in the farming world, in agriculture, this is the goal.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, when you work, you want you want to see your crops, you want to see the harvest, right?
SPEAKER_00: You want to you want to uh be happy around what uh Mother Nature, what God gave you um to um after a lot of work.
SPEAKER_00: This is the final test uh of your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: If you are fruitful, if you continue to be fruitful, not once in your life, but continually fruitful, uh in spite of your sins, in spite of your um uh shortcomings, in spite of your uh uh problems that you have, that we all have, we continue to be fruitful.
SPEAKER_00: This this parable represents the soil, the best, the the only one that brings fruit.
SPEAKER_00: As a proof that God has changed the heart of the person.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, none of the the other three uh uh represent salvation.
SPEAKER_00: There's no salvation in in any of those three uh previous uh types of soil.
SPEAKER_00: There's just one one here, which is uh not perfection.
SPEAKER_00: When we are saved, we are not we are not uh in perfection, but we are in a state of producing uh bearing fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Bearing fruit.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord, the the Holy Spirit is bearing fruit.
SPEAKER_00: The lack of the lack of uh fruit in the in somebody's life is the sign, is the signal that salvation is not present in the life of that person.
SPEAKER_00: The proof of salvation is not speaking in tongues, it's not doing other things, but it's it's um fruit being fruitful, bearing fruit.
SPEAKER_00: You will know them uh uh uh by their fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Matthew 7, 16.
SPEAKER_00: Fruit is the test of true salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to I want to close in challenging you um to be aware of of all these uh enemies of uh of bearing fruit.
SPEAKER_00: It's the weeds, um, it's the the worries of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, is the sun, the afflictions and the persecution will be there.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to live in a godly life, you will be persecuted, you will be uh afflicted by by people, by uh circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: Um the the birds are another another um symbol of of enemy of uh fruit being fruitfulness, fruitfulness, which is Satan that is trying to take the seed away.
SPEAKER_00: You will encounter hostility and resistance.
SPEAKER_00: No matter what what you'll try to do to avoid it, you will encounter it.
SPEAKER_00: And and God is Jesus is not uh leaving you uh in discouragement, he's encouraging you in an incredible way, giving you a powerful motivation, which is you will be fruitful 100 times, you will be fruitful 60 times or 30 times.
SPEAKER_00: It varies by the potential that God gave you.
SPEAKER_00: We're not the same, and we shouldn't compare each other um uh with discouragement that I'm not as fruitful as my mentor or Jesus is using uh um uh hyperbole here, an exaggeration, an unintentional exaggeration.
SPEAKER_00: And he says, like in in um in the farming time of Jesus, if if you uh saw something and and you um expected for results, if you had uh results seven times more than what you put into the land was good, it was great.
SPEAKER_00: If you had ten times more than what you what you put in there, uh was unbelievable, it was great.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus is taking it to an extreme, and he says, You will bring you will be fruitful 100 times more, 60 more times or or 30 more times.
SPEAKER_00: You will you will be fruitful in an unimaginable way.
SPEAKER_00: You just obey the Lord, you just do his will.
SPEAKER_00: The results will will differ from um from person to person.
SPEAKER_00: We we live in disobedience sometimes, we we commit sins, and but uh ultimately we will continue to to be recognized by people around us as as being fruitful.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That that's that's our continuous state, in spite of our shortcomings, as I said.
SPEAKER_00: This is a great encouragement for us to continue to do evangelism.
SPEAKER_00: This is a great encouragement to to not to not stop.
SPEAKER_00: Do not stop, please.
SPEAKER_00: Continue to throw the seeds wherever God is telling you, where God is putting you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't don't stop, don't don't uh throw just one seed.
SPEAKER_00: This is my favorite place.
SPEAKER_00: I throw just one seed a month or a year.
SPEAKER_00: Throw seeds as much as possible, be ready, um, be uh obedient, and the Lord will uh use you in a mighty way.
SPEAKER_00: He might use you in in ways that you cannot even conceive.
SPEAKER_00: Because he has the power, he has the might to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's come before him now in in a moment of uh reflection before let's bring our hearts and test them and meditate a little and see where we are in relation to the soils.
SPEAKER_00: Let's see if we are where God wants us to be.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we we praise you for speaking to our hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Father, thank you for allowing us to experience salvation.
SPEAKER_00: You changed us, Father, and you changed us, and you gave us another day to rejoice in you, but not just to rejoice because joy is not necessarily the ultimate sign of salvation, but fruitfulness bearing fruit, Father.
SPEAKER_00: You expect that from us to let the Holy Spirit bear fruit in us, bring the fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for changing us.
SPEAKER_00: Thank thank you for changing the history through people that were committed to to be obedient, to let your spirit conquer everything that was fleshy, that was carnal in them.
SPEAKER_00: That your word, that your gospel would penetrate the world, would change the world forever.
SPEAKER_00: You ask for forgiveness if we focused on things that were um temporary and we lost sight of eternal things.
SPEAKER_00: I pray that you turn this place and these people in into workers more and more as they have been already.
SPEAKER_00: And I pray that you would continue to use them for the uh salvation of so many people around uh Sugarland and and even Romania.
SPEAKER_00: I pray, Father, that you would continue to use them mightily locally, nationally, internationally for your glory.
SPEAKER_00: In your name, I pray Jesus, through your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: This is just one of the reasons we support uh the work that Avidio and his wife Adina are involved in in Romania.
SPEAKER_02: Uh it's because he's a gospel.
SPEAKER_02: They are gospel-centered, God-centered, and gospel-driven people.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, and so when you support the ministry of this church, these are the kind of people that you support.
SPEAKER_02: Would you join me in expressing your appreciation for to a video this morning?
SPEAKER_02: Uh at the conclusion of our service here in just a moment, he and his wife will be standing right down here front and center.
SPEAKER_02: If you'd like to come speak a word of encouragement to them, uh get them to pray with you.
SPEAKER_02: If you have a question about anything he said this morning, uh they'd be glad to answer that, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Uh let me just uh uh uh by way of announcement make you aware of a couple of things.
SPEAKER_02: Uh first of all, our marriage conference with Dr.
SPEAKER_02: Dan Allender is coming up May 4th and 5th.
SPEAKER_02: Tomorrow is the last day for early bird registration.
SPEAKER_02: After that, the price goes up.
SPEAKER_02: So if you're thinking about uh coming to the conference, and I hope you are, uh, it'd be a great time to register.
SPEAKER_02: You can just go to our website and just sign up there.
SPEAKER_02: It'll take you directly to the right link, and everything will be taken care of.
SPEAKER_02: Again, tomorrow is the deadline for early bird.
SPEAKER_02: Price goes up after that.
SPEAKER_02: Second thing I'm gonna remind you of is secret church.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, secret church is coming up.
SPEAKER_02: You say, what is secret church?
SPEAKER_02: Uh basically, it it is uh the topic this year is uh cults and false gospels, uh, counterfeit gospels.
SPEAKER_02: Uh in our multicultural day and age, uh, there's a lot of religious pluralism and syncretism, and people take from different things what they pick and choose what they like.
SPEAKER_02: It it's a great opportunity for us to become equipped and train our ears to hear the gospel as it's laid out in the Bible.
SPEAKER_02: And so from 5:30 to 11:30, we meet in the warehouse, we'll have Chick-fil-A and drinks and coffee and snacks available all through the night.
SPEAKER_02: There's breaks about every hour to uh 75 minutes, and so it's broken up.
SPEAKER_02: It's a fun time just to hang out with other people that kind of want to get trained in this area.
SPEAKER_02: A workbook is available.
SPEAKER_02: You can register online, or you can see Don Minton, our missions pastor, he's over all of that.
SPEAKER_02: Uh thirdly, I want to remind you of our men's breakfast.
SPEAKER_02: Our next men's breakfast is this Tuesday uh in the warehouse, which is our student ministry building at the back of our property back here.
SPEAKER_02: We start promptly at six, we end at seven.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, it's a great opportunity to meet other guys uh and just kind of connect and think uh intentionally about your faith.
SPEAKER_02: Would love you to come and be a part of that.
SPEAKER_02: Breakfast is free and everyone is invited.
SPEAKER_02: Each one's a standalone, so it's not like if you showed up, you'd be like, hey, I'm I'm six weeks behind.
SPEAKER_02: No, you're not.
SPEAKER_02: Each one stands alone.
SPEAKER_02: Last thing I want to make you aware of, we don't have a slide for this, uh, but coming up on April the 28th, our flourishing after 50, which is our women's ministry uh for women 50 and older, are having a luncheon at the Bement's Farm uh out in Fulster, uh, Texas, which is a beautiful, very peaceful place.
SPEAKER_02: Uh the cost is$10.
SPEAKER_02: It's a luncheon.
SPEAKER_02: Some of them are gonna meet here uh at the church and they're gonna carpool out together.
SPEAKER_02: But to register, if you'd like more information, they're registering for that right out this side door over here because we got two or three things being registered for in the lobby, and we don't want it to be like pinball out there.
SPEAKER_02: But if you'd like information, you have questions about that, there's a couple ladies right out of this door, my right, your left, uh, that can sign you up, answer any questions you may have.
SPEAKER_02: And again, it's our flourishing after 50 is for women 50 and older to luncheon on April 28th at the Bements Farm in Folshire, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Stand to your feet if you would.
SPEAKER_02: Let me speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_02: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_02: You're the beloved sons and daughters of God, and he's bestowed his seed of truth upon you.
SPEAKER_02: Depart now and take this with you.
SPEAKER_02: And so generously.
SPEAKER_02: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.
SPEAKER_02: Bless you.