NO ROOT...NO FRUIT! (Mark 4:1-20)

TWELVE 5 CHURCH

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Well, good morning Let's try that again. Good morning Yes, that's what

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I'm talking about. Well, hey before we start our service, I would like for us to pray for Browns Chapel Church something that we do here at 12 five is we want to pray for other

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Evangelical gospel proclaiming churches that we can lock side -by -side with in unity for the gospel

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So this morning, let's lift up Browns Chapel Heavenly Father We just want to praise you for all of who you are and your majesty

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Lord, we get to behold your beautiful creation and how it testifies to your handiwork and Lord I just want to pray for the community of Jonesboro and the surrounding towns of Paragould and everybody that we are in partnership with and we would just want to lift up Browns Chapel God we pray that they would be a faithful church

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God to preach the whole counsel of your message Lord we pray for the leadership there

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We pray that you'd give them strength to lead your people to equip them to disciple them in the gospel and in sound doctrine

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Lord, we pray all these things in your name Jesus. Amen All right. Well, if you would please stand

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We will continue with our call to worship that is based on Matthew chapter 13

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This is a time where we get to do a response with one another So if you would please join me with our first line in our call to worship the kingdom of God is here and is coming a

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Mustard seed that someone took and sowed in this field is the smallest of all seeds

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But when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air

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Come and make nests in its branches The kingdom of God is here

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Yeast that a woman took and mixed in with the three measures of flour until all was leavened treasure hidden in a field which someone found and hid then joyfully sells as all as he bought and then buys a film a

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Merchant in search of fine pearls on finding one of great value sells all of his possessions and buys the pearl

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Let all who have ears Hear and all God's people said Amen, let's pray this morning

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Heavenly Father, I pray that you would give us ears to hear your message this morning to be able to understand your truth

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God that it would mold us truly from the inside out Lord, I pray that as we sing praise to you

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God, it would not be in Words only coming from a lips that stems from a heart of bitterness

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God I pray that this morning that you would remove all distractions and that we would glorify your holy name

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We pray these things in your name Jesus If you're visiting with us this morning, we're glad to have you and I'm glad you chose to come and worship with us

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Amen, and I want to want to say happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there God is for us lift your voices sing out

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We won't fear the battle we won't fear the night We will walk the valley

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With you by our side You will go before us.

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You will lead the way We have found a refuge Only you can say

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Sing with joy now our God is for us

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The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress Raise your voice now

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No one is greater who can stand against us if our God is for us

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Even when I stumble Even when

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I fall Even when I turn back Still your love is sure

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You will not abandon You will not forsake You will cheer me on With a never ending grace

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Sing with joy now Our God is for us

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The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress Raise your voice now

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No one is greater who can stand against us If our God is for us If our God is for us

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Neither hide nor tell Can separate us

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Hell and death Will not defeat us He who gave his son to free us

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Holds me in his love Neither hide nor tell

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Can separate us Hell and death Will not defeat us

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He who gave his son to free us Holds me in his love

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Sing with joy now Our God is for us

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The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress Raise your voice now Raise your voice now

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No love is greater Who can stand against us If our God is for us

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One more time Raise your voice now No love is greater

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The Father's love is a strong and mighty fortress Raise your voice now

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No love is greater Who can stand against us If our God is for us

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If our God is for us If our God is for us God is for us.

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No one can stand against us. Amen. What an awesome truth that we have and have faith in that.

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Amen. Nothing formed against us. Nothing formed against us. As long as we have the father, he is for us.

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Amen. The splendor of the

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King, clothed in majesty, let all the earth rejoice, all the earth rejoice.

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He wraps himself in light, and darkness tries to hide, and trembles at his voice, trembles at his voice.

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How great is our God. Sing with me, how great is our

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God. And all will say, how great, how great is our

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God. Age to age he stands, and time is at his hands, beginning and the end, beginning and the end.

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Of the

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Spirit and the Son, the Lion and the Lamb, the

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Lion and the Lamb. How great is our

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God. Sing with me, how great is our

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God. And all will say, how great, how great is our

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God. The name of our Lord. Yes.

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Come on us.

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Sing with me, how great is our God.

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And all will say, how great is our

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God. Sing with me, how great is my soul, my

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Savior God. Then sings my soul, my

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Savior God. Sing it again, then sings.

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Come on. Then sings my soul. Sing that out.

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My Savior God to thee.

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How great, how great thou art. Yes. And how great thou art.

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Then sings my soul. Then sings my soul, my

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Savior God to thee. And how great thou art.

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And how great. We praise you this morning,

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Lord. Father, we thank you for being for us.

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Lord, nothing, nothing formed against us can ever, ever hurt us,

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Lord. And we're so grateful for that, Lord. As we sing how great you are, you are truly name above all names.

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We're so grateful. Lord, we are so grateful, Lord. We love you.

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We praise you. Jesus, in Jesus' name. Amen. Do you feel the world is broken?

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We do. Do you feel the shadows deepen?

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We do. Do you know that all the dark won't stop the light from getting through?

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We do. Do you wish that you could see it all, baby?

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Is all creation groaning? Is a new creation coming?

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Is the glory of the Lord to be the light within our midst?

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And is it good that we remind ourselves of this?

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Is anyone worthy? Is anyone whole?

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Is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll?

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The Lion of Judah, who conquered the grave,

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He is David's Root and the Lamb who died to ransom the slave.

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Is he worthy? Is he worthy of our blessing and honor and glory?

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Is he worthy? Is he worthy?

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Is he worthy of this?

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Does the Father truly love us? Sing it. He does. Yes.

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Does the Spirit move among us? Yes. He does.

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And does Jesus, our Messiah, hold forever those he loves?

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Yes. He does. Does our God intend to dwell again with us?

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He does. Is anyone worthy? Is anyone whole?

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Is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll?

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The Lion of Judah, who conquered the grave,

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He is David, ransomed the slave.

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From every people and tribe and every nation and tongue,

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He has made us a kingdom and priest to God to reign with the Son.

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Is he worthy? Is he worthy of our blessing and honor?

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Is he worthy? Is he worthy?

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Is he worthy of this?

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He is. He is.

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He is. He is worthy.

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He is worthy of our blessing and honor.

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He is worthy of all of your praise and some, then some. There's not enough praise we can give him.

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He is worthy of so much more than we have to offer. Amen? His grace is amazing.

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Amazing grace. How sweet the sound.

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That saved a wretch like me.

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Grace that taught me justly.

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By grace I first believed.

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Here we go, sing it out. My chains are gone. I'm set free.

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My God, my Savior, has ransomed me.

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And life is my service.

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I live. My chains are gone.

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My chains are gone. I'm set free.

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My God, my Savior, has ransomed me.

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Mercy reigns. I live. Amazing grace.

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Shall soon dissolve my soul. The sun for them to shine.

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Get a couple of ushers to come up and take our morning offering.

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How amazing God's grace is. Amen? Lord, we praise you this morning for your grace.

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Lord, I thank you and I praise you for my salvation. For choosing me.

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For releasing these chains that once bound me. Lord, I pray this morning,

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Lord, that you would just be with those that are out this morning for whatever reason.

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Lord, I pray that you would be with Pastor Nathan and his family, Lord, as they travel.

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Lord, I just pray that you would just bring them home safely. Lord, I pray that you would just be with the

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Stazneys as they visit family in Texas. Lord, I just pray that you would just keep them safe as they travel.

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Bring them home safely. And anyone else, for whatever reason, may be out.

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Lord, I pray this morning that you would bless this offering. Lord, bless this offering as we give back what is rightfully yours in the first place.

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Lord, thank you for your grace. Thank you for your goodness. In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, it is wonderful to be with all of you.

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You may have noticed I have a new leather binder. I had a dear friend tell me that it was time for an upgrade.

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I had a white binder that I had for many years. And she said, Jeremiah, I'm trying to help you out.

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Just trust me on this. So, you know who you are out there. Thank you so much for this new leather binder. I'm going to keep it always.

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So, with that being said, if you would, please open your copy of God's Word to Mark chapter 4.

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We're going to be examining the parable of the sower this morning. And as you're turning there,

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I want you to think about a time where you shared your faith with somebody. A time where you shared the good news of Jesus Christ.

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And this might be a little convicting because it might be like, oh man, when was the last time I actually shared the gospel with somebody?

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But if you've shared the gospel with someone, you've maybe noticed that there's all different kinds of responses that someone can have to the good news.

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Maybe you've shared your faith with someone and they responded with a lot of indifference.

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Like, hey, Jeremiah, that's a really cool experience, but I'm out. Thanks for sharing that with me.

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Or maybe you've shared somebody that seemed really interested, wanted to come to church after you shared the good news.

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Maybe you've met people within the church walls for many years, went to church, and then left the faith altogether.

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Why are so many people have different responses to the good news of the gospel?

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Well, I believe in this parable, Jesus gives us many reasons why that is the case. And it stems back to man's condition from the heart.

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Ever since the fall in Genesis chapter 3, man's heart has been bent towards wickedness and evil.

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The prophet Jeremiah says, man's heart is wicked and deceitful above all things who can know it.

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And so this brings us this morning to the parable of the sower where Jesus explains why people react so differently to the truth of God.

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So if you would look with me at the opening nine verses. Again, Jesus, he began to teach beside the sea and a very large crowd gathered about him so that he got into the boat and sat on it on the sea.

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And the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables.

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And in his teaching, he said to them, listen, behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path and the birds came in and devoured it.

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Other seeds fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil. And immediately it sprang up since it had no depth of soil.

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And when the sun rose, it was scorched. And since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns.

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And the thorns grew up and it choked it and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain growing up and increasing and yielding 30 fold and 60 fold and 100 fold.

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And he said, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Let's pray again this morning.

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Heavenly Father, we just pray for your blessing. Lord, please give us wisdom to understand the truth of your word.

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God, I pray that you would open our hearts to be receptive to your truth, to live life differently, to give you glory.

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Lord, we pray that you would open up our ears and give us ears to hear. We pray these things in your name,

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Jesus. Amen. So this is a parable. A parable means that you have something cast alongside something else.

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And so Jesus is giving us an earthly story cast along a spiritual truth.

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OK, so it's a parable. He's going to use very earthy language. And it's important that we have the explanation to the parable.

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Otherwise, the parable is a riddle. So Jesus is giving us a parable for a twofold purpose.

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It's to reveal truth to those that want to know more and more about the Savior and the things of salvation that God's grace is working in their heart.

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So parables are to reveal truth. And it's also to conceal truth for those who are indifferent.

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And so with this parable, I want to outline a few things in the scenery, right? Number one, we see a sower.

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I think about a farmer has a big bag of seeds and is just sowing those dudes everywhere as he goes.

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And when he falls on different kinds of soil. OK, so we got the sower. We have the seed and we have these different types of grounds or soil.

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And so our Lord is using a setting that would have been very familiar with his audience.

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A lot of us are very familiar, especially here in the South, right? With farmers, right? Sowing seeds.

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That's very important to our culture. But like I said, you have to understand the explanation of the parable.

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Otherwise, you can interpret it in so many different ways and says, man, that makes me feel good in this way and have missed the point altogether.

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And so Jesus continues in the next verses to tell us why he's speaking in parables.

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Remember, it's going to be to reveal truth and to conceal truth. Look with me at verses 10 through 12.

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And when Jesus, he was alone, those around him with the 12 asked him about the parables.

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And he said to them, to you, it has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for those who are outside, everything else is in parables.

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Then he says, so that they may indeed see, but not perceive. They may indeed hear, but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.

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So previously, Jesus had been speaking openly to all of Israel, massive crowds.

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OK, and now he's speaking to a very small group, the disciples and maybe just a handful of people.

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And Jesus is saying, look, I've already been speaking openly and clearly to Israel.

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I told them the kingdom of God is at hand. It is now. Salvation is right here.

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Repent and believe the gospel. Israel said, no, thanks. We're very comfortable in our legalism, showing how much we know of the law and how much we keep in order to earn

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God's favor. We're not interested in a savior. And Jesus is basically saying,

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OK, what was long prophesied in the prophet Isaiah is now coming to fruition.

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I'm speaking to you in parables with no explanation as judgment.

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OK, and so Jesus is speaking to the disciples, though, and says it's a very different story with you.

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You get the explanation to the parable of the sower. Jesus says to the disciples question, they asked, why are you speaking in parables to everyone now?

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He says to you, it has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for those who are outside is parables.

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And so I want us to talk about this phrase kingdom of God for just a moment. What does that mean? Well, throughout the gospels,

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Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, we see the kingdom of God and we see the kingdom of heaven used synonymously.

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They're talking about the same thing, and it's the sphere of salvation. This is the rule and reign of God in the hearts of his children.

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This is talking about one's heart disposition. So I want us to start thinking about how this is a heart matter and how one responds to the gospel message.

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The kingdom of God in this context deals primarily with the heart, whether someone is saved or not.

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This deals with spiritual rebirth, repentant faith, as God continues to rule in our hearts and in our life.

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One of my favorite verses that you hear me quote all the time is Philippians 1 verse 6. He who began a good work in you brings it to completion.

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This is the kingdom of God working in and through his people. And so we are talking about the work of salvation, and it is a mystery to those who are outside.

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And so in this immediate context, this is talking about all of Israel and this great crowd of people that are coming to hear this alleged prophet.

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And then Jesus pulls away from them, and he explains the parable to a very tight -knit group of people.

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And he reminds them that this is a judgment on Israel. That's exactly what we see in the prophet

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Isaiah. He was used as an instrument of God for judgment to an unreceptive people, and now it's happening once again in their midst.

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And like I said, Jesus was very gracious to speak openly to Israel in Mark 1 15.

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The kingdom of God. Salvation is at hand. Repent and believe the gospels.

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But now it is in riddles. And so that's the point. Jesus is speaking in parables to hide truth about the kingdom of God to those who are hostile to the things of God.

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I think in this parable and in this context in Mark chapter 4, this is a good picture of what the real world looks like.

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There's a lot of people that seem spiritual. Yes, I'm very spiritual. I pray to the deity that created all things all the time.

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But in truth, we understand that all men hate God and are hostile to the things of God, and the scripture is like a bunch of riddles unless the spirit is working and compelling them to understand these truths.

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And so this parable of the sower comes out in the three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

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This just gives us a summary of the life of Jesus. And so when you look at the parable of the sower from all these accounts together, you get this great picture.

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You get more details that are found in some accounts than others. And I love what Matthew said in his account of the parable of the sower.

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Jesus is talking to the disciples and says, Indeed, these people outside, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah, is fulfilled.

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But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.

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And so Jesus here is saying, yes, this is judgment on Israel. Everyone who is outside, spiritual truth is a bunch of riddles, but blessed are you.

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And I think that's a very important principle because if Jesus Christ is precious to you, as the second person of the

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Trinity, then you've been revealed these truths, the secrets of the kingdom of God. This should renew our hearts.

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We are truly blessed. Jesus is an amazing Savior not to leave his people in the darkness.

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In Matthew's account, he also says this incredible truth. And I think it should cause us to pause and be like, what is he really talking about here?

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Jesus praises the Father and says, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and have revealed them to little children.

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Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. So Jesus and the

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Father that are in perfect communion, they are hiding truth from people? Absolutely.

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For those who are outside, all those born and their sins and their trespasses, all these things are a bunch of riddles.

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Especially in Matthew 11, you have the so -called wise and prudent Pharisees that are very legalistic and self -righteous.

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The truth of Jesus being the long -awaited Messiah is hidden to them. And Jesus praised the

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Father for that. God is sovereign. God is working out his plan of redemption. And yet he says he has revealed these things of salvation to little children.

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Now, who is that? It is all of those who have a childlike faith that God is graciously working in their hearts and in their life.

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We're getting ready to look at the four different soils. This would be the good soil, those who have ears to hear.

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This is a work of God's mercy. We're taking a brief pause from our preaching series in the book of Ephesians.

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And one of Nathan's last sermons was, But God, but God being rich in mercy, and he saved us by his grace.

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Those are the ones who are little children, those that have a childlike faith that was gifted from above.

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And then Jesus says, All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the

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Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son. And listen to this, And anyone whom the

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Son chooses to reveal him. Salvation is a gracious gift from above.

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And so we have to understand, Outside are those who are hostile to the things of God and cannot understand spiritual truth.

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And then the next breath, Jesus said a verse that many of us know, Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

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Now this is a very comforting verse, but Jesus is actually giving a command, right? Because that's all of mankind who are labor and are heavy laden.

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That's everyone. And he says, Come to me. Come to me and submit to the only one who is worthy of praise.

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But there's a problem. Not everyone does come to Jesus. Not everyone responds to that call of him saying,

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Come to me. Scripture says that all men everywhere are called to repent and put their trust in the only

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Savior. So why is that? Why does not everybody come? Well, Jesus gives us the parable of the sower.

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And we see that God is gracious to open hearts. I recall a woman named

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Lydia in the book of Acts. It says that she was a worshiper of God. This means that she knew that Yahweh was the true creator of all things.

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And yet it says the Lord opened up her heart to understand the teachings of Paul. I just want you to see

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God's love and his mercy and his grace, how he saves people. He opens heart to understand these wonderful truths.

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Look with me at verse 12 in Mark chapter 4. So once again, this is a quotation from the prophet

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Isaiah, that these people, they may indeed hear, but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.

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And so this forgiveness of sins is the gospel. The Pharisees are not tracking, right?

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They see Jesus, the only Savior, in their midst, but they're like, No, we want to keep doing things the way that we want to, right?

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They see who Jesus is. They hear the things that he says, but they're not understanding that he is the fulfillment of all of the

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Hebrew scriptures. And so it's important that we understand the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

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Jesus became sin who knew no sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

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Friend, look to him in faith, right? If you're someone that says, You know, I go to church and I hear this all the time, but I just,

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I don't get it. And hey, theology is telling us, scripture is telling us that some of these things are riddles to some people.

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But if this is the sweetest news that rings true in your soul, you are blessed because the spirit of God is at work in your heart.

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And so I want us to talk about why do so many people respond differently to the gospel truth?

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Look at verse nine. Jesus says, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

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Now, when we think about ears, all people have ears. This is a natural feature of humanity.

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Jesus says, Come to me all, right? So the good news is meant for everyone that has physical ears.

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But those who respond in repentant faith are those who have ears to hear. They have spiritual ears.

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And so now we're about to examine four different types of people that respond in different ways to this gospel message.

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Look with me at verse 13. And Jesus said to them, Do you not understand this parable?

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How then will you understand all parables? So let me pause. This is why

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I chose Mark's account of the parable of the sower because this verse is not found in Matthew or Luke's account.

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And it's so interesting to me. He says that, Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all parables?

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Jesus is saying, If you don't get the parable of the sower right, then you're not going to understand any of the other parables that come after.

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This is the key parable. We really need to understand the things that Jesus said here. And praise

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God, he actually gives an in -depth explanation of what he's talking about. This parable is so foundational for evangelism, the condition of man's heart,

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God's sovereignty, human responsibility, spiritual warfare, our faithfulness in the

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Great Commission, which, by the way, is not fulfilled in case anybody was wondering. We are still to be obedient to our marching orders to fulfill the

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Great Commission until our Lord returns. Amen, Adam? Amen. That's right. So if you would look with me, picking up in verse 14.

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The sower sows the word, and these are the ones along the path where the word is sown.

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When they hear, Satan immediately comes in and takes away the word that is sown in them.

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And these are the ones sown on the rocky ground, the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy.

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And when they have no root in themselves but endure for a while, then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.

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And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires of other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

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But those who are sown on good soil are those who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.

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So look back with me at verse 14. Jesus tells us that the seed is the word.

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Like I said, this parable comes out in Matthew's account and Luke's account. Luke says, now this is the parable that the seed is the word of God.

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And so this parable is dealing in the sphere of salvation, the disposition of one's heart. And the word of God is directly linked to the gospel.

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And Paul said it like this, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, whether Jew or Gentile.

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And it is by faith that comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

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And so this is critical for evangelism. We're all familiar with this word. This means to share the gospel, the evangelion, the good news that God has made a way to redeem man.

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And so the Great Commission, like we were talking about how it's still ongoing, we're still being obedient to that. As we go, as we live our lives, we share the gospel and make disciples.

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We invite them to church. We say, look, we all need to sharpen one another and get that foretaste of heaven that is still in the future.

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And so evangelism is key in this parable. And he shows us that Christians are to be faithful to this.

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And I believe if we have a right view of God being sovereign over all things, guess what this means?

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We have a 100 % success rate when we share the gospel. Yeah, but Jeremiah, someone rejected the gospel.

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Isn't that a failure? No, that was exactly what should have happened in that moment. And what do we do?

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Keep sowing those seeds, baby. And we just let them fall wherever they lay. And we trust God with the increase.

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And so a critical point here is we don't alter this gospel message, right? The gospel is the good news that Jesus accomplished salvation perfectly.

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Remember the words Jesus says, it is finished to tell us time. He did all the works that were necessary to be perfectly obedient to the law.

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He did that. Not you, not me. And so don't try to add any of your works to the already completed works of Jesus Christ.

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You can't do it. That's why our response is by faith and faith alone, apart from our works.

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We look to the Savior, and we don't alter that gospel message. We don't alter it to make it seem like, well, if you just kind of add

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Jesus into your life, then your life's going to get a whole lot better, right? You share that with anybody in your family, friends.

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They're going to say, sign me up. I want to join that if my life's just going to enhance a whole lot more. But what you're doing is you're changing the actual gospel message.

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Because when you pledge your life to Christ in faith, it's about to get a whole lot harder.

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Because the world hates Jesus with all their might, right? So we are to be faithful in not altering that gospel seed.

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We are just to be faithful to sow it. And that is a hard message to a rebellious people that hate

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God. You walk up to someone that hates God and says, hey, guess what? You're a sinner, and you need a Savior. They're going to be like, you can keep moving on, right?

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But we're faithful, and we trust God that He's going to prepare a heart to receive the good news.

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Another good example we have of faithful men boldly proclaiming the

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Word of God is the Apostle Peter and the Apostle John. They were arrested for preaching that by the name of Jesus of Nazareth, there is salvation and no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

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Guess what the religious leaders at the time said? They're like, okay, you're going to go in prison, but if you stop teaching

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Jesus, then you can be released. And I love their response. They said, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than God, you must judge.

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Figure this out for yourselves, for we cannot help but to speak what we have seen and we have heard.

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They're faithful. They're not changing the gospel message. And you know what? God worked mightily in their lives.

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And we have to get ready because our culture is coming at us, right? Guess what? We still keep sharing the gospel.

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We don't alter it. And we stick together as a body, a local assembly of saints.

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We need that encouragement, amen? So they are two wonderful examples, and I think that reminds us through hard circumstances, we are to be focused on sowing the gospel seed and making disciples, and here's a key, and to pray that the

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Holy Spirit would effectually work in people's hearts, that God brings into our life to convict them of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and produce repentance, leading to a knowledge of salvation.

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The point is we have to lean on God. We have to go to Him in prayer. Someone is not going to get saved based on your obedience and how well you articulate a gospel message or not, right?

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We want to clearly articulate these truths best we can, but God is running the show. That should comfort our hearts.

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So let's start examining the four soils, starting with the wayside soil or the seed sown along the path.

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Look at verse 15 with me. And these are the ones along the path where the word is sown.

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When they hear, Satan immediately comes in and takes away the word that is sown in them.

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So that last phrase, sown in them. I think the gospel of Luke sheds a little bit more light on what this means.

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The ones along the path are those when they have heard, then the devil comes in and takes the word that was sown in their hearts.

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And so the four soils are the condition of man's heart. And we can look at it in two ways.

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It's either dead in a stony heart or it's a heart of flesh and it's made alive by the

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Holy Spirit. And so this particular type of heart is a heart that is on the wayside that Satan is proactively searching for.

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Scripture tells us that Satan is like a roaring lion, trying to devour whomever he can.

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And so these are the people, when you're just excited to share your faith with someone, and they're just like, man,

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I gotta get going. Can we kind of hurry this up a little bit? We've maybe had those interactions, right? Trying to share something that is so precious and near to us.

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Why can't this other person get it? Spiritual warfare is going on, right? Think about it.

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There's a double blinding. Man is born dead in his sins and trespasses, unable to respond to spiritual truth, and yet we see different levels of depravity because Satan is also at work.

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Satan is actively at work. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 3 says, Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

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In their case, the God of this world, which would be Satan, has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel and of the glory of Jesus Christ.

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And so Paul is telling us that unbelievers are not our enemy. Did you catch that?

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Unbelievers, those that are hostile to the things of God, they are not our enemy. Our war is not against flesh and blood, but it's against Satan.

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It's against the kingdom of darkness. So when we meet somebody that just seems to reject what we're saying or seem uninterested, pray for them.

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Pray for them because you don't know what God's going to do in their heart and life. And my point is,

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I don't want us to be discouraged because I'm someone that doesn't like rejection. Nobody does, right?

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But we're talking about spiritual realities, right? We pray for these people. We are in a spiritual warfare.

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We are soldiers of Jesus Christ. We don't get entangled with the things of this world, but we set our focus on eternity.

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And so for these types of people, we pray that God would change their hearts to understand their sinfulness and to receive the gospel in faith.

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And so this fuels us to be faithful. Now let's transition to the rocky ground in verse 16.

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And these are the ones sown on rocky ground, the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy.

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And when they have no root in themselves but endure for a while, then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.

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So the condition of this person's heart is stony or rocky, and this person immediately receives the good news with joy.

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And that makes me pause a little bit and be like, isn't that a good thing? Well, we see the entirety of their life that this type of joy is superficial.

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They get excited about the idea of salvation, but not really investing their heart with Jesus in a relationship.

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They receive this message with a superficial joy. There's no conviction of sin in their life because that is a giveaway.

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When the Holy Spirit is working in a person's life, they are immediately convicted over their sin before a holy, righteous, and just God.

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Amen. The Scriptures tell us that a brokenness over sin leads to repentance leading to salvation.

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Our Lord spoke in the second beatitude. He said, blessed are those who mourn. Why should that give us blessing or make us happy to mourn?

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Well, Jesus goes on to say, blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.

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For those who are convicted over their sin realize that they are wretched.

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They are lawbreakers worthy of eternal just punishment. Then the message of the gospel,

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Jesus being a perfect Savior, is the sweetest news anyone can hear. And then that causes us to rejoice.

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Christians understand that joy comes later. There is joy in knowing Jesus is Savior. There is joy in spending sweet time in the

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Word of God and in prayer. There is joy in assembling with the saints on the

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Lord's day. And so the rocky ground is a person that has maybe heard the gospel and shown some type of reaction, but it's superficial.

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So let's move on. Let me see in my notes here. To verse still, but the rocky ground continuing on, we learn this in verse 17.

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And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while. Then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the

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Word, immediately they fall away. And so now we learn that the stony heart not only has a superficial understanding of the gospel, receiving it with a superficial joy, but they have no root in Christ.

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And what happens? They fall away. And then I get told, Jeremiah, see, this person lost their salvation.

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And I'm like, no, they superficially attached themselves to the vine.

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They superficially came to a church, and they believed a lot of facts, and then they fell away.

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See, being saved, being justified, made right before God is so much more than knowing facts.

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It's a heart that believes in Jesus for salvation. There's a difference there. Yes, we need to have knowledge, but it has to penetrate the heart.

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And so what we see here is they endure for a while, okay?

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But then what happens? Tribulation, persecution comes at them. Oh, you mean signing up to follow

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Jesus means the world's going to hate me? I didn't realize that, right? I was just kind of superficially in this thing.

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Luke's gospel says, So therefore, any one of you who does not forsake all cannot be my disciple.

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Now, that seems like some pretty intense language. It is. It means that your heart has to be willing to give up whatever it takes to follow

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Jesus. Someone's mentality that says, well, I kind of got my life the way that I like, and I just want to kind of sprinkle in Jesus on the side.

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That's not loving him with your whole heart, right? You can't serve two masters. Your heart has to be all in.

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Whatever barrier comes your way, you have to be saying, I'm willing to make war with that, to give it up, to follow

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King Jesus. So the stony ground just simply crumbles.

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It's not willing to persevere to the end to be saved. When this person is met with tribulation, with trials, they say,

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I'm out. And so in Luke's account of the parable of the sower, he says this of the stony heart.

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They have no root. They believe for a little while and then fall away.

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And so this type of belief is a demon -like faith, right? Because the book of James tells us that even the demons believe in facts about God, that there's one true and living

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God. And they even tremble. There's actually a little bit of fact that the demons have. But it's so much more than knowing facts.

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You have to trust Jesus with the heart. And so let's look to the thorny ground in verse 18.

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Very similar to the rocky ground. And so once again, these are people with superficial commitments.

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These are people that maybe heard the good news and says, hey, I want to sign up for that. They come to church for a while.

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But notice it's something else that draws these people away ultimately. It's the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things.

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This is why, friend, Scriptures tell us to guard our heart from the love of money.

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Money is not evil in and of itself, but the love of it. You can love money and have a lot of it or not have any of it and want a whole lot of it.

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Right? You have to guard your heart. Jesus says wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

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The point is that if our heart is in the right place, continually looking to King Jesus, abiding in his word, praying for the

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Father's will in our lives and fellowshipping with other saints, then that will compel us to be good stewards of whatever

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God has gifted us with. Our hearts must stay focused on Christ. We must be faithful with little or with much, meaning that we will be generous and ready to share at any moment.

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The key is always staying close to Jesus. So there's an example of this because I want us to understand whoever is not willing to forsake all cannot be a disciple of Christ.

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This is not talking about works. This is talking about your heart is willing to give up whatever it takes.

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Has anybody ever heard of the rich young ruler? Excellent example of what we are talking about here.

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Jesus said to this fellow, We see that Jesus is exposing the major barrier of the love of riches, which was preventing the rich young ruler from following after Jesus.

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And this is very telling about the rich young ruler's heart. The text says, Sorry, I get tongue -tied too.

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Words are hard. But what this tells us is if you are sad to give up something, your heart's not in the right place.

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And I want us to ask ourselves this question, is there something in my life that I couldn't give up for King Jesus?

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Because that tells you something. That tells you maybe I have a thorny heart.

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Maybe there's something in this world that is choking out the gospel. The rich young ruler, we see that the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires of other things choked out the word and proved to be unfruitful.

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But there is good news. We have the good soil yet to talk about. Look with me at verse 20.

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...are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.

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The good soil represents a heart that has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and has been prepared to receive the good news.

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And notice the key difference between the good soil and the first three soils. That is that the good soil produces fruit.

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And so you have to be rooted in Christ. This means counting the costs, understanding that it's all or nothing.

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Jesus wants your entire heart trusting in Him. And so if you are rooted in Christ, your life will look different.

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It will produce fruit. There will be good works that glorify God with your life. An authentic believer will have a love for God, a continual repentance from sin, genuine humility, continual prayer, separation from the world, spiritual growth, obedient living, a hunger for God's word and a transformed life.

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And you may say, whoa, that's a whole lot. But we're not talking about perfection.

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We're talking about sanctification. We're talking about a desire to grow in these things, right?

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If you are rooted in Christ, then there will be much fruit. And so how can we have these things manifested in our life?

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A true Christian must be rooted in Jesus. Jesus in John 15 said,

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I am the vine and you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, it is he that will bear much fruit.

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For apart from me, you can do nothing. No roots, no fruits.

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See how that's totally connected together? You must be rooted in Christ. And when that's true, when your heart is transformed, it's trusting in King Jesus, it will produce a transformed life.

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So one of the key fruits of living faith in a believer's life is that they will continually persevere through intense trials.

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And let me be the first to say, I tore my Achilles tendon and that stunk on ice big time.

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But you know what? During that time was some of the sweetest memories that I have of being in God's word and in prayer and just spending time with my

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Christian family. So do you see a difference between a believer and his circumstances?

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Because the believer and unbeliever are going to go through hardships, but it's a difference of perspective. God is using this to teach me something, to make me more and more like Christ.

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The unbeliever ultimately hates the world, right, when things aren't going their way, right?

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And they are being hardened in their rebellion against God. So we got to land this plane,

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Mike Rupert. So one of the things that I want us to take away this morning is probably the most natural question we could ask ourselves, is which soil does my heart reflect?

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The Apostle Paul says, test yourselves to see that if you are really in the faith or not.

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If you are someone who has ears to hear today, then this means you have a desire in your heart to know

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Jesus deeper. I'm so encouraged by the writer of Hebrews that says, let us also lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely and let us run the race with endurance, the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

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It's beautiful. It's a beautiful friend. Put all of your faith, put all of your hope and all of your love in Jesus Christ.

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He will make your path straight. It will work out in this life and the life to come. And there will be much fruit.

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And so another principle that I want us to take away is evangelism, sharing the gospel as we go, because the

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Great Commission is not fulfilled. It is being fulfilled. And we get to partake in that.

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The Apostle Paul said, I planted. I was going around just sowing seeds wherever I could go.

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And Apollos would come in and he would water. So that's a beautiful truth, that you don't know who you're going to talk with with their life experience.

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They may have already heard many things about the gospel, and you're about to come and put water on that already established seed.

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But understand, their salvation is not dependent on you. How do

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I know that? Paul said, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.

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So neither he who plants or waters is anything. And then here's the truth, but only

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God who gives the increase. That's beautiful. That means we can sow seeds and we understand it's all preordained, baby.

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It's going exactly where it should go. God's word does not return empty. Amen. Amen.

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So let this compel you to be faithful, to share the gospel with people that God is putting in your life.

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And so lastly, I want us to pray for lost souls. God uses the prayers of his people as a means to draw others to salvation.

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This means that we should continually pray for those that we come in contact with. Friends, family, we pray for them.

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We pray that God would save them and bring them to a knowledge of the truth. And for that lost person, please pray that God would take out that heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.

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Amen. All right, the sermon is done, but we are now transitioning to the

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Lord's Supper, that we have the privilege and the honor of doing every Lord's Day. The Lord's Supper is not a time, like Pastor Nathan says, for penance.

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The Lord's Supper teaches us so many things as we celebrate our Lord's second coming.

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We take the bread and we drink, and we do this all in remembrance of what Jesus has done on our behalf.

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He lived a perfect and sinless life. He died on the cross of Calvary as the punishment for our sins, and he is going to resurrect us unto new life one day in glory.

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And so we do this in unity with one another. We do this in unity with the triune

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God. We look back to see what all Jesus has accomplished, and we look forward to that marriage supper of the

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Lamb one day in glory. And so we in the present, we celebrate these things together. This is a very important time for believers to have fellowship, and it's so important that Scripture warns those of partaking in an unworthy manner.

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This means that you should not come to the table if you are not a Christian. You should not come to the table if you are not a baptized

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Christian seeking to be held accountable in church membership. If you see this time as something as ritualistic or cold, this is not a time to partake.

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If you have a spirit of bitterness towards a brother or sister, or if there is any kind of unrepentant sin in your heart, friend, let me tell you, please do not come to the table.

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Why? Because some people have come to the table in an unworthy manner, and Scripture says they can leave sick, and some have even partaken this way and died.

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This is a very serious time, but I don't want that to be a downer. If you want to partake and know you shouldn't, please come seek me out.

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Please come to one of our many brothers and sisters here at 12 .5 and say, hey, I want to make things right with God.

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What do I need to do? We'd love to come alongside you and live life together. But if you are a baptized believer resting in Jesus Christ, then freely come and take of the elements here in just a moment.

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I'm going to pray, and then afterwards, if you will stand up and then come along the outside.

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I will be at this table, and I would like to ask Brother Adam if he will be at this table.

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And this is a time that if you wanted to pray with us, man, come seek me out. We're here for you.

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This is a time of fellowship. And so with that being said, let's go ahead and pray. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your word that convicts.

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God, I pray that this morning, God, I pray. I pray diligently against that person that may be indifferent to spiritual truth.

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God, that may be indifferent from being members of a local church. God, this is such a beautiful means of grace, how you grow us in our relationship with you.

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Lord, but it's nothing that I can say. God, it's only you that gives the increase. Lord, I pray that our changed lives would permeate outside of these walls as we go into the community.

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God, that people would see our lives being different and asking us, hey, why do you do the things that you do?

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Why do you live differently? And God, we may be able to give that defense for the wonderful hope that lies within us and be able to tell them about how

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King Jesus has saved us and forgiven us of sin. Lord, we love you, and we pray these things in your name,