FBC Sunday Evening Service

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Evening Fellowship Service

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Well, good evening. Hope you had a good afternoon. It's a beautiful day. Good day for a day of rest.
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I hope you got some. Enjoyed a few moments of rest and respite this afternoon.
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So this is the month of October, just a few days we'll be celebrating.
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Well, don't always celebrate it, but Reformation Sunday celebrating the Luther's nailing of the 95
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Theses and so forth. So it's appropriate that tonight we sing a song at least attributed to Martin Luther, number 24 in your blue book, your supplement book.
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Excuse me. So yeah, it says at the bottom that the verse is attributed to Luther.
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He apparently didn't write any tune to go with it, or he would have had that in here too.
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But anyway, let's stand together as we sing God's word shall stand forever. Start with a chorus on this one.
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God's word shall stand forever. The Bible will prevail.
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God's word shall stand forever. His truth can never, never fail.
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For feelings come and feelings go. And feelings are deceiving.
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My warrant is the word of God. Believing God's word shall stand forever.
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The Bible shall prevail. God's word shall stand forever.
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His truth can never, never fail.
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Though all my heart should feel condemned for want of some sweet token.
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There is one greater than my heart whose word cannot be broken.
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God's word shall stand forever. The Bible shall prevail.
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God's word shall stand forever. His truth can never, never fail.
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I'll trust in God's unchanging word till soul and body sever.
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For though all things shall pass away, his word shall stand forever.
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God's word shall stand forever. The Bible shall prevail.
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God's word shall stand forever. His truth can never, never fail.
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Let's open in prayer, shall we? Stan, would you please lead us in prayer tonight?
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And then, thank you, you may be seated. Let's turn in our Bibles to Mark chapter 4.
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Read the passage that will be our text for tonight. Mark 4 is, the passage we'll read is three different parables, three more parables that Jesus tells.
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And if you look in the context, the chapter begins with a parable of the sower. And I want you to get the sense of the theme of seed running through these parables.
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Seed and growth and so forth. So that first parable, the parable of the sower, and then
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Jesus explains that parable in verses 13 to 20. And we want to read the next three parables, verses 21 and then down to verse 34.
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So verse 21 says, Also he said to them, Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed?
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Is it not to be set on a lampstand? For there is nothing hidden which shall not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret, but that it should come to light.
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If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Then he said to them, Take heed what you hear.
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With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you, and to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given.
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But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. And he said,
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The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, and he himself does not know how.
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For the earth yields crops by itself, first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain and the head.
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But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. Then he said,
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To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed, which when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth.
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But when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.
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And with many other such parables, he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. But without a parable, he did not speak to them.
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When they were alone, he explained all things to his disciples. I would add his blessing to the reading of his word.
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I would point out that opening parable about the lamp being put under a basket and so forth, he's elaborating on the explanation of the parable of the sower as he explained it to them.
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And even referring back to verses 10 through 12, where he says, To you it's been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, seeing that they may see and not perceive, hearing they may hear and not understand, lest they should turn, their sins be forgiven.
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All right, so we'll look at that passage tonight. Let's take our hymnals again, and our hymnals this time, and turn to number 70.
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So the thrust or the theme of our singing tonight is on God's word as the seed that is sown.
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It shall stand forever. Verse 70, Psalm 70,
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Spirit of God descend upon my heart is relying upon the only one who can make
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God's word alive within us, the Spirit of God. ♪ Spirit of God descend upon my heart ♪ ♪
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Clean it from earth through all its pulses move ♪ ♪
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Stoop to my weakness mighty as thou art ♪ ♪
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Beloved as I ought to teach me to know thee ♪ ♪
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That thou art always mine ♪ ♪
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Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear ♪ ♪
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To check the rising doubt the rebel's sight ♪ ♪
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Teach me the patience of unceasing fear ♪ ♪
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Teach me to love thee as thine angels loved ♪ ♪
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One holy path filling all my frame ♪ ♪
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The baptism of the heav 'n descended down ♪
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Just a reminder, Finance Committee, we have a meeting after the service tonight. So I remind you of that.
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Wanna share some testimonies if you have something to share tonight. I'm gonna pick on Jim here in a minute.
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He went to this Sheriff's Conference, I think, this week. So I'm thinking you might have something you wanna share with us about that.
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But then in a couple of weeks from today, a baptismal service, we're planning on that. Anybody still, if anybody needs to be baptized, let us know as soon as possible.
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Let you know what to do regarding that. So some words of testimony. Maybe Jim, you can start us off with that.
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Tell us about that Sheriff's Conference. All right, good.
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So we've got some things to be praying. Jim is our missionary of the week this week, so keep these things in mind through the course of the week.
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Something that I was reminded of while he was speaking as a missionary. I don't know if any of you saw the news today.
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I didn't see it on TV. I saw a news report in a news thing I get, Christian News, that there were 17 missionaries that were kidnapped in Haiti all at one time.
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16 of them are from the United States, including some children. I think the youngest was about a year old.
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And some kind of a radical group in Haiti that just captured a bus, stopped this bus of missionaries as they were heading from one place to another, and just took all of them, took all of them, kidnapped all of them.
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I'm trying to remember off the top of my head the agency they were with. It's an agency out of Ohio. But there's some folks we need to be praying for.
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When I first saw it, I said to my wife, I said, I hope this wasn't a bunch of Haitians that got mad at the
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United States because we deported them back. But apparently not. Apparently it's a kind of a radical group that's been active there for some little time.
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So I want to pray for them. All right, other testimonies tonight? Anybody?
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Nothing at all. All right, well, let's take a few minutes to pray for these couple of requests.
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Lord, we do pray for Jim as he follows up on this meeting last week. I pray that he could be effective at training some chaplains to get into these jails in the southern part of the state.
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May those doors stay open for opportunity to minister. And we pray for this jail in Stevenson County in Freeport.
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We do pray that he could meet with the sheriff there and that sheriff would be receptive and even eager for Law and Grace Ministry to place some chaplains in that work.
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Thank you for those that are ready and willing to go and to be involved in that ministry.
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Do pray for other volunteers in the different jails that are open to chaplain work.
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I pray that you would lay it on hearts and prepare hearts and use individuals for your purposes from churches like this that can be effective in not only reaching folks with the gospel, but discipling them and training them in the truth of the word.
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Father, we do pray for these missionaries that have been kidnapped in Haiti. We don't know all the details there, but we do know that they are certainly sensing fear and concern and uncertainty.
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I pray that you would see to it that they be delivered, released, and without any harm to them, anybody in their family or anybody in that group.
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Pray for those who are responsible for that kidnapping, that you would bring them to justice.
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May they be caught and may they be not only apprehended, but may they be in prison.
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May this kind of rampant violence, not only in Haiti, but other places against your people, may this be arrested.
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So Father, we pray for them, pray for their deliverance. We pray in the meantime, give them a peace of mind and heart as they trust in you.
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And Father, as missionaries who are concerned about lost souls,
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I pray that they would even have opportunity to share the gospel with their captors, much like Paul and Silas with that Philippian jailer.
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So I pray that you might do a work of grace there. We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.
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All right, before we go back to Mark chapter four, let's turn again in our supplement to number 20, speaking of missions.
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It's a song, Facing a Task Unfinished, number 20. You have the music to that, right?
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You do have the music to that, okay. Just want to make sure. We don't have the music in our hymnal, but it's a tune that we recognize.
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So let's stand again, shall we, as we sing? Now before we sing, just notice we sing these first two stanzas, and then the refrain, then the third and fourth stanzas, and the refrain again.
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All right, Facing a Task Unfinished. ♪ Facing a task unfinished ♪ ♪
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That drives us to our knees ♪ ♪
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And rebukes our slothful ease ♪ ♪ We who rejoice to know thee ♪ ♪
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Renew before thy throne ♪ ♪ The solemn pledge we owe thee ♪ ♪
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To go and make thee known ♪ ♪ Where other lords beside thee ♪ ♪
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Hold their unhindered sway ♪ ♪ Where forces that defy thee ♪ ♪
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Defy thee still today ♪ ♪ With none to heed their crying ♪ ♪
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For life and love and light ♪ ♪ Unnumbered souls are dying ♪ ♪
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And pass into the night ♪ ♪ We go to all the world ♪ ♪
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With kingdom hope unfurled ♪ ♪ No other name has power to save ♪ ♪
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But Jesus Christ the Lord ♪ ♪ We bear the torch that flaming ♪ ♪
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Fell from the hands of those ♪ ♪ Who gave their lives proclaiming ♪ ♪
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That Jesus died and rose ♪ ♪ Ours is the same commission ♪ ♪
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Glad message ours ♪ ♪ Fired by the same ambition ♪ ♪
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To thee we yield our powers ♪ ♪
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O Father who sustained them ♪ ♪ O Spirit who inspired ♪ ♪
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Savior whose love constrained them ♪ ♪ To toil with zeal untired ♪ ♪
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From cowardice defend us ♪ ♪
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From lethargy awake ♪ ♪ Forth on thine errands send us ♪ ♪
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To labor for thy sake ♪ ♪ We go to all the world ♪ ♪
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With kingdom hope unfurled ♪ ♪ No other name has power to save ♪ ♪
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Jesus Christ the Lord. ♪ Thank you, you may be seated.
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Turn back to Mark chapter four. What do you think, what conclusions do you draw when you look out your front window and you see a couple of guys walking down the street toward your house and they're about to turn and make their way up the sidewalk to your door and they're wearing black pants, a white shirt and a black tie.
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What do you think? Mormons, Mormons. Now a watchtower would be if they weren't so fancily dressed, they didn't have matching outfits or anything and more likely were, it might be an older person with a younger person and kind of dressed, kind of almost sort of dressed up a little bit and they come up your sidewalk, you're gonna figure they're the watchtower, maybe
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Jehovah's Witnesses, perhaps. Several years ago, I was at a auto show at McCormick Place in Chicago, so we're talking many, many years ago.
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And as I was, I came off a ramp to go to McCormick Place, I saw these guys standing on the side of the road and they had this, they were wearing this kind of a freaky looking toga and bald head and they're standing there with a flower, wanting people to buy, pay for their flower so that they could fund their mission and they were, of course,
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Hare Krishnas. Have you ever seen moonies? You don't see those too much anymore, do you?
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The Unification Church, the Sun, Young Moon guys, you don't see them around very often anymore.
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They used to do the same kind of thing, they'd stand on the side of a road, sell and have a bucket of flowers and wanted to sell their flowers and so forth.
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Now, we absolutely, totally, completely reject the false teachings of those different cults and they are all cults.
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But one thing you have to admit, something that they have been taught has changed them, it has impacted them and they're behaving in a particular way because of the teachings that they have received.
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In Mark chapter four, these three parables that we looked at just a few minutes ago,
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Jesus is speaking these parables related to the kingdom of God and what he's communicating is the effect of the kingdom of God as it reigns in the human heart.
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I mean, you might interpret this to refer to the church or the visible kingdom of God.
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I think it might be better to look at this passage and these parables much as the parable of the seed and the sower on,
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I wouldn't say an individualized basis, but on a more personal basis, had the kingdom of God and its impact or its reigning, its ruling in the human heart.
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As God's truth teaches the truth of the kingdom, it's powerful and these three parables communicate that very idea.
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And then when you think about this context of the parable of the sower, we should understand that Christ is talking about the word of God and its effect on the human heart, hence that thread of the seed running through this whole chapter through these 32 verses.
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And so it is the effect of that seed on good soil that Jesus is talking about and even elaborating on.
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And so the truth of the matter is, the fact of the matter is when the word of God, the seed of the word is sown on good soil,
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Christ says, it's powerful. It's powerful to reveal truth, to change lives and to influence others.
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And I think those are the themes of these three parables, that in the first place, the word of God reveals truth to the human heart.
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So verses 21 through 25 bring that out. Now notice how in verse 21, God has worked to illumine the mind.
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He says, does a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed, is it not to be set on a lamp stand?
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The lamp of the truth, the revelation. I mean, think about it like this.
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How did Jesus describe himself in John 8, verse 12?
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What'd he say? I am the light of the world, right? And just to remind us of the rest of that,
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I am the light of the world. He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.
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So God sent Jesus into this world. Jesus came into this world to be a light shining in this world, a light to display, to disseminate the truth of God and of God's revelation.
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And the Bible is likewise considered to be a light. What's the
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Psalmist say in Psalm 119? Your word is a lamp to my feet, a light to my path. So God's truth,
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God's truth is to illumine the human mind.
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It is to illumine our minds. And in verse 22, he emphasizes that God in the giving of that truth, in the illuminating of the mind, the sending of Christ, the giving of the word, he wants to open our understanding.
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He says there's nothing hidden which shall not be revealed nor has anything been kept secret, but that it should come to light.
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Now that verse I think has been misunderstood and therefore misapplied sometimes, thinking like, or applied in the sense that, you know, you're keeping secrets, those secrets are gonna come out.
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You know, well, I don't think that's, you look at the context, it's not what it's talking about. It's talking about the fact that God has sent the truth, sent the light of the word to reveal.
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It's not gonna stay hidden. It's not gonna be kept secret. It's gonna be brought to light. This is what
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Jesus did. This reminds me of, this reminds me of my Hebrew teacher in seminary, in college.
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It was, by the way, it was Dr. Barrett, the same guy who wrote the book we've been using for Sunday School on holiness.
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Dr. Barrett, in teaching Hebrew, we got about, I don't know, maybe two weeks into Hebrew.
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Hebrew is a totally different language to try to learn. I took
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German in high school, and in German you can get some connections between English and German.
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Then in undergrad, took Greek, minored in Greek, and the same thing.
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In Greek, there's an awful lot of English words that are rooted in the Greek language. So you can make a lot of connections.
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And even the grammatical structure of Greek, there's some parallels to English and so forth.
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But Hebrew is a totally different, it's a totally different thing. And it's completely new, completely new.
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I mean, you don't even read it the same way. At least Greek and German, you read from left to right. Hebrew, you read from right to left.
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So, we'd come into Hebrew class, and we're like, feeling totally lost.
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And I remember the class, Dr. Barrett said to us, he said, look, men,
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I think it was all men in that class at the time. He says, look, men, I know right now you feel like you are totally lost.
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He says, here's the deal. I have taken you over the top of a forest, and I have dropped you into the middle of the forest.
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But then he said, stay with me, and I'll bring you out on the other end, on the other side.
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And what he was communicating, this very idea. There's nothing hidden from you right now, but what is gonna be opened up, it's gonna be revealed.
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And in fact, for probably 80 % of the class, that was the case.
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80 % of us stayed with him, and he brought us out, and we got some measure of understanding. Well, this is what
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God is intending with the revelation that he has sent
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Jesus to give, and that he has revealed in his word. It was to open up our understanding.
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But in the giving of the light, in the design of opening up our understanding, he, in verses 23 through 25, tells us that he expects us to respond.
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If you have ears to hear, hear. If you have ears to hear, hear. This truth that he is giving through Jesus demands a verdict.
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You have ears to hear what he has to say, you better hear, listen to what he has to say. And again, that goes back to verse 12, if you catch that connection.
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Back in verse 12, he says, those who are unconverted, whose eyes are blind that they will not see, their ears are deaf that they will not hear, they have ears, but they will not hear and understand.
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They hear the words, but they don't comprehend, they don't understand. The truth is given for us to respond to.
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We do have ears, we hear, will we respond? Will we actually listen to what is said?
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And the thing of it is, that truth that is revealed ends up holding us accountable.
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We can't say, well, I don't have the truth. You have it in front of you.
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And Jesus is speaking to people who had the privilege of hearing him speak the very truth themselves.
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So verses 24 and 25, he says, take heed what you hear. The same measure that you use, it'll be measured to you.
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To you who hear more will be given. So even tonight, as we sit here and we listen to the scripture, this morning as we have the opportunity to listen to a
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Sunday school lesson, and then to listen to a sermon in the morning service and have the Bible opened up to us and taught and spoken to us, we are held accountable for what we hear and what we have opportunity to hear.
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So there is a level of accountability that we fall under that is different from those in a place that don't get to hear that, don't get to hear the truth.
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Can you imagine, there are people, even in our
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Western world and in places like the United States, like Sterling, Illinois, where there is freedom to open the word and to teach the word, and there are believers in churches.
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All over this country, there are truly believers in Christ, but they're sitting in pews and in churches where everything is just superficial.
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It's just all surface stuff. There's very little truth that is taught.
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The opportunity not long ago to hear a testimony of that very fact, of somebody that's been saved for a while, but just been in churches where they're just not getting taught.
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They're not hearing the word expounded and opened up to them. And what you have an opportunity to hear, you're held accountable for that.
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There's reward, Christ is saying. There is great reward that comes to those who hear and receive.
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More will be given, he says in verse 24. So what a blessing it is to you to know that as I hear
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God's word opened and taught and I receive it, the promise is that more will be given.
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More will be given. On the other hand, the other side of that accountability is at the end of verse 25.
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He says, whoever does not have even what he has will be taken away from him. There's a penalty for ignoring what you hear.
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And again, I shudder to think of the impact of this aspect of accountability and responsibility on folks who've grown up in good churches and have sat in places where they could hear the word and it was taught and they learned, they heard good doctrine, they learned good doctrine, maybe even gone through catechisms and were taught, but then walked away from it all.
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Walked away from it all. There is accountability for what we hear.
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Blessing for those who hear and receive, more will be given, but for those who hear and turn away, close their ears, reject, even what they have will be taken away from them.
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So God's word, in this first parable, God's word reveals truth to you. In the second parable, in verses 26 through 29, the emphasis,
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I believe, is that the word of God changes your life. It changes your life.
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Now verse 26 expresses a couple of presuppositions. Look at verse 26.
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And again, he goes back to the idea of the sower and the seed. Says the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.
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Okay, so for the word of God to change your life, a couple of presuppositions. One of them is that the word is sown.
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The word is sown. The kingdom of God is as a man should scatter seed on the ground.
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The word is sown. There's not going to be an impact, God's word is not going to make an impact on a person's life if the seed isn't sown, is the point.
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And the second presupposition is that the soil is ready to receive that seed.
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So when Jesus says the seed is scattered on the ground, you have to, again, go back to that parable of the sower.
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And remember, there was those four kinds of soil. So the presupposition here is that that seed that is sown on the ground is sown on the good ground, where the seed can germinate and take root and eventually produce fruit.
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The soil, in other words, is ready. But that soil that is ready, the seed is sown, brings about a change, but notice the general pattern of that change.
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In the first place, he says in verse 27, it's gradual. It's gradual.
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The seed is scattered on the ground and the person who sowed it should sleep by night and rise by day and the seed should sprout and grow.
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He himself doesn't even know how, doesn't know how. So it's like at some point after the seed is sown into the ground, the germination takes place and the sprouting occurs.
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And you know, I am not a master, I'm not a gardener. I mean,
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I have a garden, but I would not claim to be a gardener by any stretch of the imagination. Just look at my garden and you'd understand that.
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But what I do understand from sowing different kinds of seed is that not all seed comes up at the same speed, right?
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Some sprout pretty fast. Others, you know, you go and you look, nothing there.
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You go the next day and you look, nothing there. A few days later, you look, still nothing there.
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And you think, huh, I guess that seed wasn't any good. And then finally you go out maybe a week later and there's a little shoots, you know, poking up through the ground.
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And so to get the picture of what Jesus, this is the nature of a parable, right? He's painting a picture for us.
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This impact of the seed is a gradual thing. It may come at different durations after the seed is sown.
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And the actual growth of that seed isn't seen.
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I mean, you don't see the growth as it's happening. You see the effect of growth. We'll talk more about that.
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But you don't see the growth itself as it's happening. I mean, think of the fastest growing plant that you can think of.
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What is it, you know? I think of two things. I think of Shylock and Kudzu.
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Shylock, my wife knows. Shylock was this, what was it called? Wandering, is that racist?
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A wandering Jew. That's why we called him Shylock. Goes back to a
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Shakespearean play. All right, anyway. Somebody gave us this wandering
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Jew for our wedding. Was it a wedding gift or was it just a, I don't know. But it was right, I mean, we were married and it hung in our kitchen right after we were married.
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And there it was. And when we got the thing, it just barely hung over the basket.
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But before you know it, that thing is getting longer and longer and longer. But here's the thing.
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We could sit there at the kitchen table and stare at Shylock and we wouldn't see a scintilla of movement as that thing grew.
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But, you know, from one week to the next, it's longer, longer. And then I think of Kudzu, of Kudzu.
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Kudzu is that glorious plant that grows in the South. It's a vine, you know, that just has taken over so much of the
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South. You see, if the Yankees had thought of planting Kudzu in the war of, as my
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Southern friend calls it, the war of Yankee aggression, of Northern aggression. You see, if we had planted
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Kudzu, we'd have won that war a long time earlier, a lot faster. But anyway, so Kudzu's this plant down South.
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This vine's just overtaken things. And this Southern friend of mine who calls the Civil War the war of Northern aggression.
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You see me smiling about that? Okay, you see me, okay, all right. He makes a joke about if you have an enemy, what you want to do is go plant a
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Kudzu plant at the very back of his property, you know, one night.
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And by morning, it'll be knocking on his window. You know, it just grows that fast.
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And it does, it is incredibly fast growing stuff. But you never see it grow. So a plant, no matter how fast it grows, it's so gradual that you can't, as you're standing there watching it, you can't see the incremental growth.
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And that's the picture. That's a picture here that we want to get. It's gradual. But the other thing we want to understand is it's automatic, it's automatic.
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In verse 28, he says, the earth yields crops by itself. In other words, real growth in the
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Christian life that's impacted by the word of God is not something that's worked up. It's not something you can say, you can respond in an emotional way and say, okay, from here on out,
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I'm going to be like this because I'm responding emotionally to some kind of whatever. And therefore your life is going to change from there on out.
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It's not something you work up out of the emotions of your own heart.
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It is the effect of the word of God, finding lodging, the seed of the truth, finding lodging in your heart and getting down, rooting into your being and gradually changing your life.
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Gradually changing. It's a progressive thing. And that comes out in verse 28, the last part of the verse.
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The earth yields crops by itself, first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain and the head.
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This is the way the seed works. Truth is taken in.
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It's then applied to the life. It's put into practice.
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And sometimes that practice takes practice. It takes time for it to become a practice, to become a part of your life, but eventually it becomes a part of your life.
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I think, for example, of one of the areas that many Christians struggle with, it's a matter of having personal devotions, the time where you read the
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Bible and you pray. I've talked to many, many Christians who said, I really want to have a meaningful and consistent devotional life.
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Why do they want to have that? See, there it is. Why do they want to have that?
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Because the seed's been planted in the heart, see? And sometimes they'll say,
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I go at it and I'm faithful for a few days and then something comes up and I miss a couple days and then
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I fall back out of it or whatever. And then I get back into it. But the thing is, they're looking for the seed that they've heard.
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I really want to have time in God's word and they want to put it into practice. The truth's been heard.
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They want to apply it to the life, put it into practice, and then it becomes a part of life.
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Many Christians who have a faithful, consistent, daily devotional life will testify to having gone through that very struggle of maybe even for a few years of struggling until finally, finally, it just becomes a part of their life.
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That's the way God's word works. You think about some very practical challenges from God's word.
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Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, for example. Be angry and do not sin.
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And you have a, you struggle with an anger problem and you hear that word and it convicts you and you're convicted in your heart.
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You say, I know I need to get this anger problem under control. There's the truth.
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There's the seed taken in. It's applied to your life. I need this. I need to change.
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And in the process of time, as God continues to work in your heart, your life, you deal with that anger issue.
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The truth of being angry without sin becomes a part of your life.
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And verse 29 suggests that that change will involve some tangible evidence.
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So when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come.
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There will be some change in your life, in your lifestyle. This is the effect of the word of God.
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It changes the life. And again, you know, in this room tonight, there's a range of Christian life experience, length of time since you've been converted, since you became a
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Christian. And those who have been converted could testify of a changed life.
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And those who've known you could testify, yeah, there have been some changes in that person's life.
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Some have been radical. Some have been swift. Some have been gradual.
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But you could say who I am and what my life is like now is different from what it was 20 years ago, 10 years ago, or whenever it was you were converted.
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How can you, to what can you attribute that? God's word that changes your life.
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Then the last parable, I think, emphasizes the fact that the word of God influences others.
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And initially that influence seems so insignificant, so minuscule.
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The kingdom of God, he says in verse 31, is like a mustard seed, which when it is sown is smaller than all the seeds of the earth, on earth.
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He's speaking, of course, to an audience that recognizes what he's saying. To them, the smallest seed that they know of is this mustard seed, so tiny, so insignificant, so seemingly of little consequence.
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But when it's sown in fertile soil, it makes a difference.
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It strikes, but with little fanfare, that mustard seed. I think of some testimonies through the years.
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I think of John Wesley, for example, who, though he had heard the word many times, finally, finally, he said, my heart was strangely warmed.
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What happened? The mustard seed preached, influenced his heart.
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Or, you know, Martin Luther's realization that justification is by faith.
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It's by faith alone. It dawns on him, and he suggests that truth to others.
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And before you know it, before you know it, this simple little seed of truth sparks a reformation that we are, you know, we're sitting here tonight because of that, because of that truth, that seemingly insignificant little detail, which is fundamental and life -changing.
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So initially, that influence is miniscule and insignificant, but ultimately, it becomes obvious.
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Like in verse 32, he says, when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs and shoots out great branches.
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When it's sown, it grows up. I think you could argue from that that if there is no growth, there is no truth that's been taken in.
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I think that's inevitable, that's axiomatic. If someone sits under the sound of the truth, and there's no change, there's no growth, there's no impact, then the truth has not really been taken in.
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It is ultimately going to become obvious. It will ultimately make a difference. And that influence is continuously developing as well.
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Start small, a little mustard seed, but before long, as the middle of verse 32 says, it becomes greater than all herbs.
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It comes to the place where God's truth supersedes all these other truths, quote -unquote, that the person has been living by.
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And even truths that the person thought was important. Have you ever heard this line, all truth is
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God's truth? All truth is God's truth. I mean, it's certainly true if you come in and you sit down on that pew, it's going to hold you up.
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But not all truth is equally significant and is of the same consequence.
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All truth is God's truth, but not all truth equals God's revelation in importance.
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There's the truth of revelation that really supersedes truth that we can discern by our own observation and conclusions and so on and so forth.
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Because our perspective is changing. Think about the truth of science.
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Follow the science, right? Follow the science. Which? Which science?
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The science that says, you can't, don't eat butter, eat this margarine, this oleomargarine, this plasticized stuff, because this butter is going to kill you.
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Eating that butter is going to kill you. Or the science that says, don't eat that plasticized stuff, it'll kill you, eat regular butter, it's good for you, it's better for you.
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Which science? See, that's the problem with our truth, where we say, all truth is God's truth.
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The truth that we come to conclusions about, that may be true. We may change our perspective on that truth, but not, listen, that which
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God has revealed to us, see, this is what we're talking about. God's revealed truth supersedes all other truths.
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So for example, the truth of submitting to divine authority, revealed to us in the scriptures, that supersedes the truth that stopping at stop signs saves lives.
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I'm not going to argue that stopping at stop signs doesn't save lives, but I am going to say that submitting to God -ordained authority, as he has ordered us in the word, supersedes that man -designed or derived truth and understanding.
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The influence is continuously developing as we understand that God's truth supersedes all others, and it is not static, it is not static.
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Notice how it says it becomes greater than all herbs and shoots out large branches, and it's in the present tense, it keeps shooting out these branches.
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Point being, you never come to the place where you arrive, where there's not more truth of God's word to take in, where you can say,
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I don't need to grow any further. Even Paul couldn't say that.
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He had to admit, I have not arrived. So the influence of God's truth is continuously developing, and notice in the last part of verse 32 that that influence is used selflessly, selflessly.
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The birds of the air may nest under its shade. I think what
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I think we could say about that is that the goal of revelation taking in God's truth and the change that comes from that revelation is not an end in itself, it's not an end in itself where we can just sit back and be satisfied in what
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God is doing in our lives, but that truth that we take in that changes us is intended to be a blessing to others.
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Now, maybe by way of illustration, I think of a guy in one church where I served that had an insatiable appetite to learn, and he was always wanting to read and learn more stuff and learn more stuff, but he never did anything with what he learned.
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He'd come to church, and he'd sit, and that was all he did. I mean, he didn't serve others in any real tangible way.
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He was just satisfied to fill his head, to fill his head with information that didn't affect anybody else.
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That's not the idea of God's truth. It's intended to change us that we might be a blessing to others, like the birds of the air that may nest in our heads, that we can serve those birds.
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So the goal, then, of that service is to be a blessing to others.
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God's word is impactful. It's impactful.
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It's designed to influence others. It's given to influence us, to change us, to reveal truth to us, and thereby make a big difference in our lives.
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I trust that that is the desire of our heart. As we take in the word, even in our personal devotions, in our study of the word in a corporate setting, but that it change us, grow us, make us more like Christ.
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Our Father in heaven, I pray tonight that we would stop and think about our relationship to your word.
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What is our attitude as we are presented with it, as we're taught the word, as it's preached to us, as we read the word, or even as we want to read the word.
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I pray that we would see that the goal is not simply to gain information and to fill our heads with more knowledge, but that your word would change our lives and that it would influence others through our lives.
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And this we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Let's close tonight with number 365.
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Sing a stanza or two of the song, Draw Me Near. It's a prayer, a prayer asking
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God to draw us nearer to himself. And he does so through his word.
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365, I got the wrong one. What's the right number?
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Oh, yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, I am thine, O Lord. In some hymnals, the title is Draw Me Near. All right, let's stand together as we sing.
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365. ♪
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I am thine, O Lord, I have heard thy voice ♪ ♪
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And it told thy love to me ♪ ♪ But I long to rise in the arms of faith ♪ ♪
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Sir, drawn to thee ♪ ♪ Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed
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Lord, to the cross ♪ ♪ Where thou hast died ♪ ♪
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Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord ♪ ♪
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To thy precious bleeding side ♪ And then the third.
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♪ Oh, the pure delight of a single hour ♪ ♪
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That before thy throne I spend ♪ ♪
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When I kneel in prayer and with thee, my God ♪ ♪
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I commune as friend with friend ♪ ♪ Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed
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Lord, to the cross ♪ ♪ Where thou hast died ♪ ♪
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Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord ♪ ♪
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To thy precious bleeding side ♪
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Dismiss us, O Lord, with your blessing. Give us a good week of serving you, and I pray that your word that has found lodging in our heart in this day would grow and bring forth fruit in a way that you see fit, in a way that pleases and glorifies you.