Welcome to a redemption hill podcast for more
information about redemption so go to redemption hill
dot com.
It's good to be here
with you. It's good to see
believe I can't see very well. But I
think you still all have your hands after
fourth of July. That's
that's classic. That's good. But
I'm glad you're here. We're gonna jump into,
Luke chapter
8.
We're gonna read it. We're gonna pray for
help, to be honest. This is a text
that
is I dig into it for Sermon and
prep, I think it's 1 that we all
approach are, like, yeah, I know what that
means.
Then you look deeper. Like, I don't really
know what that means.
And so we're we're gonna read it and
ask the lord
that he would help us,
and then he would be glorified and made
much of and draw near to us through
his word.
He says doesn't return to wood. It's always
doing something.
And so it's it's read, and pray and
ask for help and we'll dig into it.
Luke chapter 8 starting in verse 1, we're
gonna read through 18.
Soon after already went on through cities and
villages,
proclaiming and bringing the good news of the
kingdom of god. This is Jesus that it's
talking about. And the 12 were with him
and also some women who had been healed
of evil spirits and firm,
Mary called Mag,
from whom 7 demons and got out and
Joanna, the wife of Chu,
harriet house told manager and Susanna and many
others provided for them out of their means.
And when a great crowd was gathering.
And people from town,
and people town after town came to him,
he said in a parable.
A sow went out to sow his seed.
And as he sow, some fell along the
path and was tram under foot, and the
birds of the air devoured it, and some
fell on the rock, and it as it
grew with her away because it had no
moisture.
Some fell among the thorn of the thorn
grew up with it and choked it. And
some fell into good soil and grew and
yielded a hundred fold,
and he said these things and he called
out, he who has ears to hear,
let him here.
And as when his disciples asked him, what
the parable
meant? Right? That's that part Talking about before.
Know what this means. I I don't know
if I know what it means Even the
disciples didn't know.
He said to you, it has been given
to know the secrets to the kingdom of
God, but for others,
they are in parable, so that seeing they
may not see.
In hearing they may not understand.
Now the parable is this, the seed is
the word of God. The ones among the
path of those who have heard them,
and the devil comes and takes away the
word from their hearts. The tour praying does
not happen.
So that they may not believe and be
saved and the ones
on the rock or those who when they
hear the word, receive it with joy, but
these have no root.
They believe for a while.
And in time of testing they fall away.
And ask for what fell among the thorn,
they are those who hear, but as they
go on their way, they're choked by the
cares and the riches and the pleasures of
life
and their fruit
does not mature.
It's a heavy line.
As for that, in the good soil, there
are those who hear the word hold it
fast in an honest and good heart and
bear fruit with patience.
Verse 16. No 1 after lighting a lamp
covers it with a jar puts it under
a bed, but puts it on a stand
so that those who enter may see the
light. For nothing is hidden that will not
be made manifest nor is anything seeker that
will not be known and come to light,
take care then how you hear.
For the 1 who has more will be
given.
And for the 1 who has not even
what he thinks that he has will be
taken away. This is the word of the
lord.
Father we just asked for your help.
Let's just confess.
I, I'm I'm weary in and body and
and spirit.
In a heavy text before, so he just
asked for your help. Holy spirit come.
Shows us the beauty of,
the word honor your promise that it doesn't
return void.
May it shows the beauty of who you
are, may it reach the depths of our
heart and the ways that it has meant
to come and do your work? We we
pray for that and we ask you your
help.
Pray this in your name more.
Amen.
So so kinda jumping in, as I was
thinking through this text this week, my my
family, I'm lucky lucky enough that we have
some
land in
New Franklin. It's where my great grandparents lived
before they passed.
Away. It's where my grandpa and my great
aunts grew up. My grandpa actually helped his
father dig the the basement of this house
by hand.
In the middle of a flood. Right? Just
some crazy stuff around this land. So I...
I've grown to really love this land, and
I picked up hunting
there, again, over the last few years. I
grew up hunting on the land, but now
I'm doing it a little bit of a
different method.
I haven't used a gun out there for
hunting since I was probably 19
or 20. Now I've switched into,
I take a bow in arrows, and I
hang from trees from ropes and saddle and
hope I don't die to try get a
deer with a a bow. That's my my
thing. There's something about it.
The challenge, the prep, the ability to fire
a bow,
a bow and an arrow is not like
a bike. It's not like, once you get
it. It's just there. It deteriorate quite quickly.
So you gotta kinda stay sharp. Got a
lot to do a prep work. And the
more I go.
The more I enjoy it, Garrett, and Harrison
will tell you, we get this because I'm
always sending them dear pictures. I'd, I love
it.
But here's the thing as much as I
enjoy Bow hunting, I want to be successful
at it. Right? I'm not gonna be the
guy who would go out during a season,
all year long, I'm like I'm just so
happy I was in the woods. Now I
would be angry. Like, I want to go,
but I wanna go and do well.
And I wanna get the biggest buck around.
If if I would tell you the truth
of my heart. I wanna get a bigger
deer than my dad has ever gotten, I
wanna be able fling an arrow at the
mythical 30 pointer, I I wanna be successful.
With the problem with that is,
that doesn't happen very much in in bop
hunting because you have to get really close
to a deer, like, really, really, really close.
My
my dad,
he will post up on a creek side
and look over an open field. You can
really shoot a hundred, a hundred and 5202
hundred 50 yards. Just as much as your
skill will allow,
gunpowder and lead is a powerful combination to
reach out a long, long ways.
But for a bow,
in Missouri terrain, you gotta get a deer,
like, 20 to 30 yards.
Away. So you've gotta get them close. And
not only they have to be close. There
has to be nothing in the way.
I went bow hunting when I was, I
think, 15 or 16 and I remember
what I thought was a big buck at
at the time. It could've have been a
spike now. I don't know, But it it
came down a hill and I was so
excited, and I I pulled back and I
let Loose an air of, like, yes.
And it hit a tree branch and Do
its feet and her ran away. So you
gotta get it close.
You gotta have nothing in your way. Then
you gotta pull a bow back with a
deer close without seeing or hearing you. And
then with your heart beating a million miles
now, you gotta... Yeah. Shoot the thing.
There's a lot that goes into
bow hunting and becoming successful. So
as of late, I've been trying to do
what I can to kind of tip the
scale into my favor so I'm successful. I've
spent
12 or 15 hours with a weed eater
cutting trails into the woods. Which if you
could see me I'm in the middle nowhere.
But if you could see me like, why
is that weird dude with a weed eater
in the woods? I'm I'm trying to cut
trails to get deer to come through I've
been cutting down a bunch of trees to
to make room. And then recently, I've been
doing this, research and what is called a
a food plot, year, eat, like, 5 to
6 times a day.
Right? You think they eat or you eat
a lot they eat more. So a lot
of their movement is determined by where do
I get my food? So the idea is
if you can bring good food to your
hunting area? There's a good chance you can
bring big deer to your hunting area. So
now hunters will try and make food plots
appear in the middle of the woods.
They'll try and get clover and rye and
other things that won't die in October and
November,
to grow in the middle of the woods.
And again, the idea is if I can
bring food, The deer will come in when
I'm trying to, and I'll be more successful.
So try to explain this to my wife.
I am out there trying to draw deer
in.
And I I'll show her pictures, look at
the 1 I got. She's like, okay. So
you
do a lot of work in the woods
to make, like a cozy living room dining
room so that the deer will enjoy it.
Yes.
And then you try and shoot them in
it.
Also, yes. That's a hundred percent, what I'm
trying to do. It should look at me
like, Think you're a little messed up. I'm
like, cool. Right? And
and and and so that's what what I'm
doing, but the difficulty with this food plot
idea is it's not very easy to get
crops to grow in the middle of the
woods.
Like, in in theory, it's easy, but
it takes a little bit of work, especially
if you can't get, like, big equipment or
a tiller back there or things like that.
So if
hold hold with me. I, I've done some
research, and they basically tell you in order
to get a food plot in the middle
of the woods, you gotta clear some some
dead trees.
Do a little bit of of raking to
expose just a little bit of the soil.
And then after that, you basically go out
and you just throw seed, like a wild
man
everywhere.
And you scatter it all over the place
hoping that it will find good soil, but
knowing full well that a large large amount
of it will not.
The reality is you cannot tend to all
the soil. You cannot make the woods perfect
for growing crops, but you can throw a
ton of seed out knowing some will grow.
Some will find sunlight.
Some will end up having a root that
that is deep enough that it won't get
scorched out when when that we're in the
blazing heat of
of late July and in August, and and
then some of it,
we'll never hit the ground because as odd
as is add as it is the the
deer that you're trying to attract will eat
it before it ever takes root.
Why why am I giving this deep dive
into bow hunting and food plots
probably because it's on my mind, but
the biggest part is really this this way
of starting things
reminded me exactly the terrible to seed in
the soil. This is exactly what Jesus was
talking about and the thing that I was
trying to do. And he taught us this
interesting thing. If you throw all the way
stuff away from deer hunting,
scatter seed will yield hitting different soils.
The different soils that it hits will yield
a different result. This is this is what
Jesus wants to to tell us. You throw
out seed, hits different ground. We'll do different
things based on it. And then Jesus said
this really
interesting and profound thing. This is part of
what what I think, we're like, yeah, I
think I know is what this means and
then you dig a little deeper. Not I'm
not fully sure if I know what it
means.
He who has ears to hear let him
hear.
We'll dig into that more, but I think
we can agree ahead of time that the
prayer and hope for us is that we
would have ears to hear. Lord give us
ears to hear us.
Would you bring a harvest? Would you let
it lead
to to to something
good for your glory and and and for
our good?
Now this first parable in this text is
is likely the most well known parable in
the new testament. It's kind of
the parable, if you will, It comes up
a lot. It's in more than 1 of
the gospel, and it even comes with an
explanation, which is odd for parable.
A most are short and sweet and either
get it or you don't, and there's no
explanation that comes with it. But,
this one's not like that. So the the
the parable of the foundations that was earlier
in Luke. I believe that was 1 that
Garrett did a a killer job with taught
that building our life upon the rock of
god's
word
is better than building it on the shifting
sands of our desire or cultural opinion. So
it's leading believers build your life on God's
word and not just hearing them, but obeying
it, and you have a solid foundation underneath
of you. If you do. And and then
the parable about the debts being canceled from
last week, it it's not hard to see
if the holy spirit has given you the
ability to to be saved,
that that text was about forgiveness, Uncharted favor.
You have been forgiven out of something that
you could not have worked your way out
of, and that should stir in you a
love for for Jesus and others. The those
didn't need a whole lot of explanation, but
this 1, it's a little different.
It still holds a a message about the
kingdom of God or as this text says,
it literally holds some of the secrets of
heaven.
But it also So teaches us more about
why Jesus was using these parable
in in general? Well, why Jesus using parable,
and what are they for and and what
are they they doing
to begin to look at that and and
and ask what are these parable doing? We
need to maybe back up and and see
why did luke put this parable here?
And,
why did Jesus give this parable when he
did?
So not only we have a parable, Jesus
just tell us why you uses the parable,
but why is this parable here? In in
context of what's going on, Jesus was getting
a fairly large
crowd. In a Texas said people were coming
from all kinds of cities all over we're
coming. There's a large crowd coming. Some are
coming from miracles,
some were coming for teaching.
Some were c... Coming hoping that they would
have some sort of need or desire met
or something would be given to them.
Some were coming just to see what all
the buzz was about. Some were coming to
try and challenge,
Jesus, some were coming genuinely to find salvation
in Jesus. The motives were all over the
place.
Then contextual, the... Jesus also was having these
kind of encounters or tu with the ph
season in that time. And the ph,
were were the ones
who were religious people. They knew the the
scriptures
and yet despite their familiarity with the scriptures,
they had rejected who God had sent to
be they're redeem. So there's different types of
people, from different places
with different motives and different hearts and different
ideas and different wants. There's this mass group
and there's crazy different amount of reasons why
they're there. So this text is there to
help us so that we can weed out
maybe true believers from fake believers.
And this Text is here to maybe help
us see how to tell the difference between
a ph and a true believer and and
even more so because we're not just supposed
to use this to judge other people. This
text is is here to help show us
if we're on the right path.
How do we know if we're following Jesus
rightly if we are healthy if the preferred
result is kinda happening in our life? This
this text actually speaks into that, which is
helpful.
This parable begins to answer some of those
questions, but we may still ask okay, why
do we need this
differentiation?
Why do we need to know good soil
from bad. Why do we need to to
understand the results that hit different soils will
will differ. Why why do we need to
pay attention to how we hear and what
happens afterwards. Well, again, contextual, it stated that
a lot of people were around?
Now.
But what about later?
See, the crowds are are huge. People from
all over are are coming and and they
seem to be super into Jesus, but what
we know if we if we know a
little bit more about the bible is in
not too much time, those crowds are gonna
d to be about nonexistent existent.
Massive crowds
following Jesus and listening
to, like, crickets and nobody
around.
When that happens when the followers of Jesus
shrink and number, the common human response will
be to blame the message
or the messenger.
It's it's a try and use the the
number drop as evidence well that Christianity was
a failed experiment.
We live in a pro pragmatic world that
kind of says anything healthy,
we'll grow. All a sudden if something's not
growing, People are gonna try and throw it
out... It's not healthy.
It's not good. Something must be wrong with
it yet This parable explains
that not all people accept the gospel.
And then further, it it explains that
some will seem to,
accept it
and yet they won't stick with it.
They won't grow. They won't produce fruit. They
won't find maturity and they'll fall
away, and that line was heavy. Some will
never find maturity.
And some will hear it a lot, and
it'll actually harden them.
There's this interesting thing that's in this text
the gospel to seed. It's always doing something.
It'll either harden you, produce something fake and
then harden you or produce something good.
It's always
doing
something. What we need to know here.
Is when people reject the truth,
will people walk away from the truth. When
people walk away, from Jesus that doesn't mean
that the message of the messenger is broken.
This would have been extremely helpful for the
early church
for what coming for them, and it's still
helpful today when the tides of culture change,
which historically, though we think we're always in
a new time. The the the the tides
have always kind of done this, when all
of a sudden, a lot less people claim
Christianity,
1 that's not new,
Jesus told us there's gonna be a lot
of people who walk away.
And again, it doesn't mean that we need
to change the gospel give up on on
Jesus.
As we look at the text, we see
the setup
already unfolding.
We hear that there's a great crowd.
This isn't a few people, this is thousands
and Jesus opens up this parable. So you
you've gotta kinda put yourself there and understanding.
A lot of people are coming,
mixed motives,
different reasoning. There there's a buzz. There's an
excitement. They're all coming. Let's see what this
Jesus guy gonna. He's done some crazy stuff.
I heard. Let let's see hear what he
has to say. And they gather around.
And jesus opens up the parable the... Of
the seed and the soils.
Big crowd.
A sow went out to sow seed.
He's throwing it all around the land and
some fell on the path, and it was
tram and the birds devoured it.
Some fell on the rock and it started
to grow and then it end up s
because it had no root.
Some fell among the thorn but the thorn
grew and they They choked it out,
and some fell on good soil and yield
at a hundred fold,
and Jesus says emphatic those who have ears.
Hear, let them here
the end.
I don't know about you, But if I
came from a long distance to hear that,
I I would have been confused if not
irritated.
Why did I come so far off for
this guy to talk about a
a farmer throwing seed out and.
I don't I don't understand.
I imagine the disciples were also
in an an interesting situation. I I imagine
maybe James looks at his brother John. It
says, hey, bro,
You understand what that's about. Right? And John's
like, yeah, totally.
You you know what it's about right? Yeah,
Totally knowing that neither of them have a
clue
on what Jesus has just said. And we
know that they're confused because it actually says
that they have to go to Jesus and
ask for an explanation. Again, we don't know
what that explanation looks like, but my kind
of dull Adhd mind likes to pretend. I
know what it looks like.
Maybe Peter throws Thomas under the bus at
dinner. Is was like, hey, geez. It's Thomas
is a little confused.
You gonna, like,
help him out I get it, But you
wanna help him out and explain to him
what this parable is about, I think it
would help him. And we have no idea
how it happened.
I think that would have been funny.
But reality is even there confused.
And they ask Jesus for help and in
his kindness he is
content to shed more light on the parable
about what it means we hear this. Before
he explains the parable,
he speaks to them in general about why
he's using parable and why they're ramping up.
But that that's a that's a big deal.
I'm not just gonna tell you what this
is about
I'm gonna tell you you the methodology of
why I'm giving parable.
He says to you it has been given
to know the secrets of the kingdom of
God.
But for others,
they are parable so that seeing they may
not see
and hearing they may not understand.
We we may normally assume that the point
of parable is to make something clear.
It takes a concept about the kingdom of
God and puts it on the low shelf
for everyone to grab, but But Jesus laid
out here that the parable actually have a
dual purpose
for those who have ears to hear.
The spirit has given them faith for them.
The parable to them is meant to explain
or clarify the secrets of the kingdom of
God.
But for others who don't have ears to
hear the parable is actually meant to hide
the truth from them.
That means that parable are not only to
reveal, but they're also
conceal.
What Jesus says here is a quote from
the book of Isaiah. We always need to
make sure to understand if there's quote from
the old testament. What are they doing and
and what are they saying and why are
they saying it?
That that quote for Isaiah, keep on hearing,
but do not understand keep on seeing, but
do not receive in the context of Isaiah
ministry in the old testament people would rebelled
against the the word of God.
But they rebelled in an interesting way. They're
they're eager to come hear it.
They're just not eager to do it. They
they become hard. And I'll hear it, but
my answer is gonna be no.
And part of God's judgment against their sin
of rejecting what he wanted for them is
to harden them further in their un unbelievable.
So here here's here's the idea. People come
together hear the word. All here, but I
ain't gonna do it. Their hearts are hard
and because I wanna gonna harden your heart
even more.
Jesus is telling the disciples. I'm gonna use
the parable like back in the day of
Isaiah.
They'll be revelation to those who have ears
to hear,
who... Those who want to obey me and
they'll harden the stiff neck people who do
not want to obey me.
Rc sp says it's as though, God were
saying to the stiff neck people. You don't
want to hear me.
Fine. I won't let you hear me.
You're closing your ears with your hands. I'll
do you 1 better. I'll close your heart
off.
And this is heavy stuff, and we might
hear this and think well, That sounds
capri and addictive on god's part, but
as older theologian have put it, God's justice
is first just, but it's also poetic.
He gives people. And we see this all
over the old testament. We we we tend
to think of judgment only is what happens
when you die,
But god all over the bible talks about.
There's a judgment that can happen here and
a judgment that happens internally. There's not just
1. A judgment that happens here is I'll
give you over to your sin.
If you're cool with your heart being harden,
I'll make sure it's even harder.
You want a stiff neck, I'll make it
concrete.
If that's what you want, you can have
it in spade.
Think of the book of Romans, read the
first 2 chapters and he gave them over
to a debate mind.
This is this. Okay. You can have what
you want.
This means the same parable could have different
effects on different people.
For those who come just to be entertained
or casually here
Jesus with no desire to obey or or
follow
or submit to. Those people are gonna be
hardened and Deaf. Here's the result. That that
that's just interesting this week every time we
preach or you hear the word an c
or Dna or or whatever you're doing. When
you're hearing the word of god. It never
does nothing.
It either harden you or soften you. That's
all it does.
Be careful how you hear.
Those who seek to listen and apply and
follow,
says there'll be truth that's added to you,
and then you get more and more in
or it'll it'll
it'll build you.
Leon Morris says this for
Jesus was looking for more than
superficial
adherence.
What what we may wanna hear is he's
looking more for more than cultural Christianity or
Sunday morning than Christianity.
So he
his parable in his use.
Stories which yielded a meaning only to those
who are prepared to search for them.
The parable demand thought and earnest ness and
they separate the the sincere seeker from the
casual here, like, a, oh, take it or
leave it.
This idea of spiritual earnest, this is desire
to not just hear, but to search and
process and apply and plumb the depths of
Jesus words. This all of a sudden explains
a little bit more why he says those
who have ears, let them here. You're you're...
There's something that's supposed to happen in our
hearing. It's not it's not meant to be
a road to nowhere.
The Jesus
desires for those who are his to hear
deep in their soul and have the secrets
of the kingdom of god take root in
their life.
What does this mean? And and and this
is what is hard is especially if we're
talking... We're we're coming fourth of July ish
weekend,
tons of plans, maybe you haven't your vacation
yet. You're... Maybe you're the low and you've
already vacation. Like, there's a million things that
can happen.
And it's showing us that we're not meant
to just come around the word And here
it physically, we're meant to hear it deep
in our soul. This is what Jesus wants.
Hear my words deep in your heart, take
them in and let them do something in
you.
And then he explains the parable.
The seed is the word of God.
It is the the bible. The manifest will
and word and part of God is revealed
through the scriptures and passed on by the
apostles. This is the seed.
But Jesus is showing is the seed or
the word will hit 4 different types of
hearts. Now, clarify, it's not saying there's 4
different types of people in the world That's
not what it says.
It's saying that when the word goes out
and someone is hearing it, there's 4 different
types of parts that it'll that that will
hear it.
The word will hit a hard heart,
a shallow heart,
an infested heart,
or a good heart.
And it will have an effect on all
of them.
For the heart heart, this is the soil
upon
the path. If you've ever walked on a
trail, if you've been hiking or Mountain biking
and there's a trail that that hundreds of
feet have walked through it, it's it's hard
like concrete. There's There's nothing that's gonna get
in there. And this is what Jesus talking
about. These are people who hear the word
outward, but it never makes it inward. This
seed is thrown. It lands on them. They
are as hard as a rock and it
never breaks the surface,
then listen to Jesus words.
The devil comes and takes a seat away.
The word is taken from their hearts.
So that they may not believe and be
saved.
That's a pretty profound thing if you believe
Jesus is serious isn't it?
The holy spirit is at work trying to
bring about faith and repentance and strengthen us
to see the beauty of Jesus when the
word is preached.
And the devil is at we're trying to
pluck it off of the hard ground.
Jesus tell us there's a spiritual battle raging
that you and I can't see or understand
when the word goes out because it's not
meant to do nothing.
There's a battle that rages when it goes.
Then some seed hits
the rock. This is
meant to be imagine bedrock with a an
an inch or 2 of dirt on top.
The seed hits it
seems to to take root to sprout up.
It seems like there's gonna be a harvest.
This person normally joy or receives the word
and joy. They're excited about Jesus they're pumped
about it. I wanna do all the things...
But they don't... They don't have a root
system.
And it doesn't go deep. It doesn't break
the... The... It it doesn't break the surface
and go deep enough in their heart. So
at the first test,
the first problem, the first conflict, the first
challenge of their their life and their faith.
They fall away, and they leave behind. I'm
so excited about Jesus peace out. I'm out.
That that's the rock.
This is the shallow part.
Faith doesn't go very deep.
This person is normally interested more in the
ideas of Jesus like salvation, inheritance peace with
God, no
no consequence for sin, but but not very
interested in in san vacation, die to self,
repentance life together. I want Jesus words, but
not as heart. Let me do my thing.
This is the the shallow 1.
As soon as trial comes,
they walk away.
Now some here this,
we have put our theological hat on. Right?
And they wonder is is Jesus teaching that
you can lose your salvation.
He was not.
The bible tells us that those who the
lower lord redeem,
he
preserves.
Guys in moments when we know life isn't
going well,
this is a bedrock of our hope.
I got you and I won't let you
go.
He gives them a seal a guarantee of
the holy spirit and we're told
that he who began the good work him
is gonna see it through to completion.
Salvation doesn't get lost because it's held by
God and nobody wins in a fight against
God.
He keeps his children,
but
There will be sadly people who have what
I'll just call foe faith.
The idea of Jesus will seem good to
them,
but they will walk away at some point
because their hearts were never transformed by god.
They at many levels did not want the
word to go deep so it did not,
and they fall away over time.
And the soil among the the thorn. This
is the,
infested heart or I could call it the
the the the dual heart or the the
conflicted heart, This person seems to have faith
and maybe it lasts a little bit longer
than than the the the word hits the
rock, but
ultimately the thorn, the cares of the world,
the desires that the passions that you have,
the things that you want out of life
end up competing with the truth of god
and they win. They choke it out.
I want Jesus, but I want this more.
And and it wins.
What's difficult for us
is there are things that
that Jesus says
that there will be moments of time that
illuminate to us that we just didn't take
it serious that he met that.
So he flat out says there's a lot
of people
who will walk away from my word.
Right? There's no mathematical
equation, but you do understand that there's 4
types of hearts, and only 1 of them
is a a good 1.
There are a lot who here
seem to accept. Seem to be even in
the words they'll will accept it with joy.
They'll be excited over it.
But then it'll come crashing down and the
walk away.
After Covid was a mass illumination of what
we'll call shallow and infested soils.
In the church
a whole over the west.
It was a point in time that many,
many, many, many people left the the church
as it seems for good.
Hopefully not. But as it seems for for
good, many seem to have bore faux fruit
and then attention came or problem came, or
their desires came and weighed in and all
of a sudden, they... The ones who seem
like they accepted the word of God rejected
the word of god and Jesus told us
it was gonna happen.
And it let a lot of people wondering
if
the gospel with a church
were just done a irrelevant,
broken.
And believe this Texas say no.
It just wasn't good soil. It hurts and
it's not fun. We pray the lord still
intervene,
for for those who walked away all over
the place, but it doesn't mean the church
or the gospel
are dead or broken.
I told you that there was gonna do
this.
Was first 3 were a bit depressing. Right?
You can say yes.
1 of you said it. Strongly. Yes.
Then Jesus says some will
hit good soil.
This is the heart of a person who
hear the word and hold fast to it.
Here and
Hold fast. Not hold fast for a second,
not here for a second here and hold
fast with an honest and good heart. They
will bear fruit a hundred fold.
This hundred fold isn't just a literal 100.
This is meant to be
exponential.
We need to do some work here though.
Because we pair this parable with the 1
prior last week. Remember the parable from last
week was about the debtor who could not
pay.
There was a bill that no matter what
could not be paid off. The person could
not get rid of it. They couldn't cancel
it. They couldn't deal with it no matter
what the bill is way too big. It's
astronomical.
I can't fix it. So the 1 who
is owed cancels the debt for the 1
who actually owes.
The point was that Sin has brought about
a bill that you and I cannot pay.
We cannot lose our theology because of a
parable.
It's brought a bill that we cannot pay.
We cannot fix it. We cannot clear it.
We cannot work it off. This is why
Grace is such a beautiful thing. Un meredith
its out... Or a favor is salvation, not
the the debt that you were able to
pay off.
As Jesus is talking about the soils
and the harvest that comes.
That if we hold theology with the parable,
he isn't telling you to work hard to
make yourself good soil.
He isn't telling you,
hey, you better
you you better weed yourself. You better take
care of the Thorn now or else they're
gonna get you.
Right? No soil is able to clear rocks
from itself.
That was a ph mindset
salvation by. It works. Remember the ph that
that got into it with Jesus in the
text last week.
Jesus isn't giving us a huge task that
we have to figure out how to do
on her own He's explaining what happens when
a person is saved.
Remember, he's the champion. He's the hero.
Because of the salvation that Jesus brings, they
receive the word,
and it gets down deep,
and they hold to it.
And they cling to it with an honest
heart.
Meaning they in their heart, want the word
torque in them.
And it does.
And they bear fruit then by hearing
and taking in the word, and then they
as they take in the the word, the
word becomes a apparent in their life because
it actually harvest itself
out of their life.
Remember, there's a ton of people who are
around at this point. Again, what why is
he doing this?
People all around coming? And they're hearing for
different reasons.
And I can just imagine them but like,
this is so good and
there's a lot of people are hearing though,
but they don't actually wanna change.
And it's not doing anything, and they're fine
with it.
See, the good soil is the heart that
wants the word to grow in it.
They want to take it in. They they
they want it to to go deep. They
wanna hold onto to it, and they wanna
cling to it and be shaped by. They're
not wanting to just how much do I
have to do in order to not go
to hell. They're they're wanting the word to
to dig deep and and change them, Lord
you are good in your kind, so change
me from 1 degree of glory to another
because I need you. This is the good
heart.
Not the mixed mode 1.
I believe Jesus is telling us more about
the miracle of salvation here.
Than he is of giving us a heavy
task that we need to figure out.
It would be heavy. Wouldn't it? Make yourself
good soil.
Fix it.
It's counterintuitive to the whole gospel.
He's telling us
about the miracle of salvation as those who
were once hearted.
Those you and I who are once shallow,
those who are once are in by the
thorn by the work of the spirit are
not transformed into good soil.
Jesus takes what looks unusable,
Jesus takes what seems like it would be
impossible for anything good. Remember the broken,
the shattered.
And he turns it into something usable and
healthy,
transformed
Well, the goal of this parable isn't to
get you to try and change your soil
makeup.
This is the hard part of the text.
Right?
Then what do I do with it?
If it's not trying to get you to
change your soil makeup. If you were a
follow of Christ, it does shed light into
how you are meant to to live.
You were meant to take in the word,
and it is meant to do something in
you.
That means Sermon an mc and Dna and
reading and
every time that you encounter the seed,
that has not meant to be an exercise
in
futility.
God help us for the times that we
just come expecting nothing.
It's meant to work.
It's meant to be seeds planted that grow
and become apparent.
See for those who take in the word
all the time and yet there is no
change in them.
Those who hear Sermon all the time and
it doesn't ever do anything.
What Jesus is telling you that's not supposed
to happen.
That's not what salvation does. Salvation bears fruit.
Salvation springs up in the heart. Is this
at over the top? Like a crazy manic
thing all the time, no, but we are
to be changed, and it's visible and it's
made manifest and it's transformative
and it's exponential we could never do it
on our own.
If it's made to be
manifest
and seen and invisible,
Then maybe we can understand why Jesus says
what he says in verse 16.
No 1 lights in the lamp for the
purpose of light and then covers it up.
Jesus is transfer...
He's transferring the metaphor for from sea to
light here.
But the general idea is the same. If
a person hears the word of God,
if they take in the seed,
if the light of the world, Jesus christ
has lit in their heart,
then you can't hide that
because it does something.
It'll be visible to to them and to
others. It is a fallacy to think that
Jesus... Would reside in the heart transform you.
Make you a new creation, give you the
spirit, a new identity, a new inheritance, are
calling a brand new name, call you clean,
Tell you, you'd never let you go. And
you look the same as everyone who's never
been saved.
There's a beautiful light that has been given
to the good soil.
It's not meant to be hidden.
Friend is a light hidden.
There's likely a twofold meaning to this.
If we believe we are saved,
and yet the salvation isn't visible, It isn't
breaking through the darkness, then there is a
problem.
Maybe we aren't good soil
or maybe we need to ask the lord
to
till the heart.
And if we're doing our best to blend
in culture. We've been on this road every
since even
through Romans and Hebrews. If we're doing our
best to blend in to not cause waves
to not be extra for Jesus or stand
out. You're missing the point of your salvation.
You're not meant to be a jerk, but
you're also not meant to blend in.
We are called to shine. He he he
literally talks about. You meant to be like
a light, a kid in a corner no
on a stand.
Like on a hillside. You can't hide that
thing.
In a cultural moment like today where the
tenants of Christ are just... They're not loved.
Good soil still not meant to hide.
It's meant to keep on shining. It's meant
to be put on the stand. It's meant
to be seen by the world even if
the world doesn't like it.
This is why Jesus ends the text by
saying.
Take care than how you hear.
I think there's a
Well we cannot change the tenants of what
soil we are. There is just a message
seriousness.
Be careful not to be flipping around the
word.
Be careful not to assume it's not gonna
do anything.
Be careful how
you hear don't hear the truth and hide
it. Don't hear the truth and file it
away in the recesses of your heart. You
not hear the the word and become indifferent
to it.
Here and be transformed.
Here to be changed. Here to
have the light of the world shine in
you and not in some weird way, be
become more and more and more like Jesus.
Think maybe we bought into
for a while that because grace is unmarried
favor, we're just all meant to go to
to heaven still dumpster fires.
He's meant to change us.
Look more and more and more and prepare
us for eternity with him.
There's a bit of a warning here.
Those who hear the truth and it does
nothing.
Actually need to know that the truth is
hardening you.
We may hide behind,
I'm a cy or other things like that,
but if there's if there's nothing good coming,
it is hardening you
So those up ears let them hear and
be changed.
This text since it shows us the miracle
of salvation,
and are evident need to be serious about
how we hear.
There's probably a couple plays
If you feel like your heart is growing
cold,
isn't open to change is different as nonchalant,
And I think it'd be wise in our
in our time of prayer today, Lord help
me.
I was seeing more clearly, and I've blamed
it on a a lot of other things,
but my infections aren't hot, and my my
heart isn't being molded and I need your
to help holy help soften me. I need
you. III can't do it. Give me a
new heart, help me to see and be
changed.
You aren't done. Keep working.
For us, what child of God believes that
the work that God wants to do them
isn't good. So at a heart level, if
we feel that the Lord isn't working through
his word, maybe we just say, lord good
father. I I need you to work again,
help me.
Weed without the things that I can't.
There's also a time for gratitude I think
in this. If you don't change your soil,
and the Lord is the 1 who's changed
you,
If God has moved towards you with the
love of Jesus so that you would be
changed and grow and out of a bill
that you could have never paid off, then
there's a lot of adduction that comes out
of that,
man you're good.
Man you're good, and your patient and your
kind. So I think there's a invitation to
ask the lord to work again if it
slowed,
and then the invitation to to worship out
of thankful and humility.
God you've done a good work. Please keep
doing it. Thank you for doing what I
could never do.
The so came
and the word went out.
Hit many hearts,
and in some of them,
There's a great harvest. Friends our our prayer
just simply this. Look...
Let let your word do you're work us.
Don't stop changing. We're so glad that we
have a a building.
But, we're glad that you've been kind. We're
we're glad that we've have... We we've had
many years under our belt, but we also
want you to keep working, thank you for
what you've done.
Continue to work in us.
Man you guys can come back up. We'll
take
comm today.
Like we do each week.
First Corinthians 11:23 through 26 where I received
from the Lord what I also delivered to
you.
At the lord jesus on the night when
he his betrayed, took bread and when he
had given thanks, he broke, and he said
this is my body, which is for you.
Do this in remembrance of me in the
same way. Also, he took the cup after
supper saying, this cup is the new covenant
in my blood.
Do this as often as you drink, and
remembrance it's of me for as often as
you eat this bread and drink the cup.
You claim the Lord's death
when until he comes.
Friends of Jesus was telling us this parable
to explain the miracle of salvation then we
come to the table thankful.
God is only you that have done a
good work in me.
Thank you for what you've started to thank
you that you you preserved me.
Thank you that you you will not let
it in. You will not let it go.
Thank you that you have done all the
works. It was your body and your blood
thank you helped me to live out of
that, may your word.
Produced a rich beautiful crop in my life.
Thank you for your goodness. That's our hope
as we come to the table. We remember
It his god's work and out hours and
we worship out of
out of that. You don't have to be
a member to take here. We'll play a
couple songs at any point you can come
up. And you can take.
But the hope is that will continually be
fed at the table. Got it as you
and you alone, and we thankful for your
grace and mercy.
Would you stay in and pray with me?