The Parable of the Sower | Mark 4:1-20

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If you would please open your copy of God's Word to Mark chapter 4. We're gonna 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 like, hey
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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, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.
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And he was teaching them many things in parables, 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, and the thorns grew up, and it choked it, and it yielded no grain.
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And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and a hundredfold.
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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, and so Jesus is giving us an earthly story cast along a spiritual truth, okay?
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So it's a parable. He's gonna use very earthy language, and it's important that we have the explanation to the parable, otherwise the parable is a riddle.
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So Jesus is giving us a parable for a twofold purpose. It's to reveal truth to those that want to know more and more about the
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Savior and the things of salvation that God's grace is working in their heart. 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 who has a big bag of seeds and is just sowing those dudes everywhere as he goes, and it falls on different kinds of soil, okay?
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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, otherwise you can interpret it in so many different ways and say, 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 twelve 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, okay, 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. I told them the kingdom of God is at hand.
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It is now. Salvation is right here. Repent and believe the gospel. Israel said, no thanks.
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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, okay, what was long prophesied in the prophet
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Isaiah is now coming to fruition. I'm speaking to you in parables with no explanation as judgment, okay.
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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, 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
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Gospels, 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 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
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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, 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, and one of Nathan's last sermons was, but God.
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But God being rich in mercy, and we 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, that's everyone.
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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, come to me.
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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, and we see that God is gracious to open hearts.
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I recall a woman named Lydia in the book of Acts. It says that she was a worshiper of God.
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This means that she knew that Yahweh was the true creator of all things, and yet it says the
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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 I don't get it.
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And hey, theology is telling us, scripture is telling us that some of these things are riddles to some people, but if this is the sweetest news that rings true in your soul, you are blessed because the
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Spirit of God is at work in your heart. 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 9. 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, but those who respond in repentant faith are those who have ears to hear.
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They have spiritual ears. 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? That's right. So if you will 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, okay?
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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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Y 'all 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 gonna get a whole lot better, right? You share that with anybody in your family, friends, they're gonna say, sign me up.
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I want to join that if my life's just gonna enhance a whole lot more. But what you're doing is you're changing the actual gospel message, because when you pledge your life to Christ in faith, it's about to get a whole lot harder, because the world hates
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Jesus with all their might, right? So we are to be faithful in not altering that gospel.
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See, 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 are faithful. They're not changing the gospel message, and you know what? God worked mightily in their lives, and we have to get ready because our culture is coming at us, right?
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Guess what? We still keep sharing the gospel. 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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A 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 and 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 just like,
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I got to get going. Can we kind of hurry this up a little bit? We've maybe had those interactions, right?
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Trying to share something that is so precious and near to us. Why can't this other person get it?
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Spiritual warfare is going on, right? Think about it. There's a double -blinding.
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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. 2nd 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.
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Did you catch that? Unbelievers, those that are hostile to the things of God, they are not our enemy.
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Our war is not against flesh and blood, but it's against Satan. It's against the kingdom of darkness.
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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. 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. But we're talking about spiritual realities.
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We pray for these people. We are in a spiritual warfare. We are soldiers of Jesus Christ.
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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.
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Why should that give us blessing or make us happy to mourn? 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 wretches, they are lawbreakers worthy of eternal just punishment.
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Then the message of the gospel, Jesus being a perfect Savior, is the sweetest news anyone can hear.
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And then that causes us to rejoice. Christians understand that joy comes later. There is joy in knowing
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Jesus is Savior. There is joy in spending sweet time in the Word of God and in prayer.
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There is joy in assembling with the saints on the 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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Okay, 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 word, immediately they fall away.
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And so now we learn that the 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'd 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 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, but then what happens?
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Tribulation, persecution comes at them. Oh, you mean signing up to follow Jesus means the world's gonna hate me?
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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, they have no root.
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They believe for a little while and then fall away. And so this type of belief is a demon -like faith, right?
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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 others are the ones that are sown among thorns. They are those that hear the word, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
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And so once again, these are people with superficial commitments. These are people that maybe heard the good news and says, hey,
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I want to sign up for that. They come to church for a while, but notice it's something else that draws these people away ultimately.
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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, right?
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You have to guard your heart. Jesus says wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
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That's the point is, 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, if you would be perfect, go and sell all that you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.
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Come and follow me. 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, and when the young man heard this, he went away sad, for he had great possessions.
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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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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, right? That tells you maybe I have a thorny heart. Maybe there's something in this world that is choking out the gospel.
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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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But those who are sown on good soil 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 cost, 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're 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 and 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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Now 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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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.
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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'll 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 pre -ordained, baby.
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It's going exactly where it should go. God's Word does not return empty. Amen? Amen. 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.