Book of Luke - Ch. 8, Vs. 14 (06/01/2003)

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Pastor David Mitchell

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All right, let's get busy before that chicken hits. It's too late Luke chapter 8 and Today, we're discussing the thorny soil
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Last time we talked about the stony soil stony soil talks about a false profession of faith a person who gives a profession and acts like they're saved and Gives a testimony and then about a month later two months a year later
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Whatever they go back to live in the pig slop again because they never really had a root and the root is
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Jesus So they weren't really born again So today we're going to talk about the type of seed that falls in among the thorns so we'll be in Luke chapter 8 and Verse 3rd,
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I'm sorry verse 15 no verse 14 Let's follow along with me there and They which fell among the thorns are they which when they have heard go forth and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life and Being no more and bring no more fruit to perfection
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Now How many types of soil are there Listed there are four the first one is called the pathway
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And that's where it says Satan comes and takes the seed before it does anything so that person obviously is not saved the second is called the stony soil and It that's the false profession springs up quickly and looks saved but when the
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Sun comes out that pictures temptations and and Tribulation it comes because of the
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Word of God in their life and they go back to the way they were so they're not saved Now this third one we might ask the question on the thorny soil.
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Is this a saved person? Now the fourth kind of soil is found in verse 15, but that on good ground
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Are they which in an honest and good heart? Having heard the word keep it and bring forth fruit with patience
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Now everybody would agree that's a safe person if the seed hits the heart it's good soil and it grows it brings forth fruit and So forth but the question we're going to ask him today is verse 14
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Is this a saved person or is it a person who's not really saved? Or could it apply to both saved people and lost people?
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So think about that Now while we do this Let's read verse 14 again and I want us to make a list of the things the one thing that we can study for sure and and really
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I'm not Sure that the parable is designed to be teaching us the difference between a lost person and a saved person
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But what I do know is it is designed to show us What happens with the
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Word of God in our life? If we get involved with certain things, I know it teaches that So, let's look at this list in verse 14 they which fell among the thorns or they which when they have heard
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Go forth so they do go forth and They there are some there's some indication that they bear fruit
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We'll find that in these other parallel passages in a minute. So they go forth and they bear some fruit, but look what happens
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And let's let's number these They are choked by number one the cares of this world the riches and pleasures of this life
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So there in my mind, there are three things listed that can cause the person to To not bear fruit
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Okay, let's see if we can name them number one cares Number two riches and number three the pleasures of this life.
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So what would cares be? And which of these are sins are they all sins?
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Do they have to be a sin to be a thorn see it pictures? You're growing you get in some good soil and you you bear root you grow up and you're doing fine
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You're even bearing fruit, but there are thorns around you that are growing with you and Entwining themselves around you while you're growing.
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That's what this is picturing. So it slows down your growth the more they grow, doesn't it? so for that reason do you think this talking about a saved person or a lost person or What?
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Well, this one is bearing some fruit Well, I'll tell you let's read some other passages.
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Hold your hand there. Let's go back to Matthew 13 You're gonna find a parallel passage. Let's see if we can get some help
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Also, we're going to see what the complete list is So we had three things there. We're going to come back to this question
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But we have three things cares of this world riches and the pleasures of this life.
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What are the cares? So so is that a sin doesn't have to be a sin so so it's like your job what else
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Anxiety which are usually with regard to what? Your job or your family, right?
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Okay. So these are things that all Christians have And all all lost people have them too
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All right now riches What's that and I think you would have to Include other scriptures from the
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Bible. We know that it means the love of riches Because Abraham was rich lot.
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I mean Job was rich John was rich. There are a lot of rich Christians in the Bible So it's not the riches that are evil
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It's the love of money or the love of the riches or thinking that those riches are going to be
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God and take away all your Trouble if you think the riches take away the cares then you got a problem
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Yeah, and so what would pleasures be the pleasures of this life is how it works
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The pleasures of this life Man -made amusement
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Where your focus is on those things? I'm convinced there are times that we all get involved with pleasures
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That we need to give up for a season just so it won't own us. I did that with golf one year
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And it doesn't own me anymore Still like to play but I mean
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I don't have to play but there was a year where I had to play so I just Gave it up brought my golf clubs down put them on the altar.
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Y 'all remember that over in the old building Sharon said I don't think you ever did that brother Dave No, I did.
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I did he but you might have missed out on that But I laid my golf club down miss caps put her cigarettes on the altar the same day.
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I Picked my clubs back up the next year. She picked her cigarettes back up But I didn't pick them up that year and when
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I did pick them up they didn't own me anymore But I'm just saying pleasures. You can't let them own you there.
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They're meant to be God gives them to us read Ecclesiastes, I mean they're there for us, but they're not supposed to own us
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Now, let's see if we can list add any more to the list Matthew 13 22.
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I'm too far over He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word and The care of this world.
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Well, that's kind of similar to cares So that's not a new one and the deceitfulness of riches now that gives us some
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Additional information about the riches. It's not just Riches that are the problem.
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It's when the riches start to lie to you now What will money tell you if it lies to you?
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And then it's worth more than time you could spend with your children or your wife, you know The money's worth more so go get the money all those kind of things
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So the deceitfulness of riches is the problem here Let's see 13 22 lost one place again.
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All right, so we have cares of this world. That's kind of the same deceitfulness of riches we have a little additional information on riches and they choke the word and He becometh unfruitful
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Now I have to ask you a question here This is why it's so important at the time you're studying something to to not focus on one verse
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You can't prove anything with one verse But the people who start cult groups and false religion, they always got one their little verse
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They're going to use well, this has to be truths in the Bible Well, it does it is true, but you may be interpreting it wrong
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But if you take it with the whole Bible you won't That's a very important rule of Bible interpretation is let the
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Bible interpret the Bible. That's really good now Look at this though. It gives us more Thought for whether this is can be a safe person lost person or both
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Or maybe just one tell me what you think now. This is a person who?
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Has heard the word It says he heareth the word. So the seed is planted.
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He hears the word and He bears fruit Because that's implied because it says he becomes unfruitful.
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That means he had to be fruitful but the care of this world and the seedfulness of Riches and the pleasures of this life, which is not mentioned in this one, but it's still one of the things choke the word
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From him. What does that imply? It implies he was in the word
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Would a lost person? Really be feeding now. I know that they'll sometimes become theologians, you know, like a
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Mormon he'll study the Bible or he you know, a Catholic sometimes study it just to see what it says from a from a
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Technical point of view, but would he be feeding upon the word like a Christian? I don't think so. But this is a person who was and all of a sudden he chokes and The word is no longer effective
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So this starts to lean me more in the direction of thinking this could be a Christian Whereas the first one you can't tell the first one
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Says he brings no fruit to Is it perfection? What did it say? What was that word?
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Bring no fruit to it. Is that what it was perfection? Hey Perfection, okay to maturity
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Okay, this one leans more to think that well this is a person who heard the word received it and began to Be in the word and now these particular things in his life caused him to not spend time in the word
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Now look what it says about him. He becometh unfruitful now in the
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Luke passage It says it brings no fruit to perfection
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This one it says He becomes unfruitful Now, let's go to the next one, which is in Mark Mark chapter 4 verse 18
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We'll get the rest of the story as Paul Harvey says Mark chapter 4 starting with verse 18 and these are they which are sown among the thorns such as hear the word and The cares of this world does that add a new one?
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It doesn't really does it? so we still have the cares of this world the deceitfulness of riches and The lusts of other things entering in so now that we have
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Four things rather than three we have the cares of the world We have the deceitfulness of riches we have just Any other thing which
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I think could almost be identical with the pleasures of this life because that's usually the things
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But it doesn't say pleasures in this case. It just says other things So let's let it be a third thing and then the pleasures of this life
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So we have four things that create the thorny bushes around us The cares of the world which are not sins there.
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They're us going about taking care of business But we have to keep even that in the right priorities what is teaching but is taking care of business number two the deceitfulness of riches number three the pleasures of this life and then number four other things coming in Things other than what the
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Word of God That's all it's comparing it to is how much time do you spend in the word?
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Growing in the Word of God Well, these four things come into your life and they edge out the
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Word of God. They push it out Now I have to ask this question. What relevance would this have to a lost person at all?
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Is there a danger of a lost person having the Word of God Choked out of his life or edged away.
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He's not in the Word anyway Is there any reason God would warn the lost person?
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To worry about these other things come in that choke So I think this
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I really have now when I first started this studying this the very first Years of my
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Christianity, I believe that only the fourth soil was a Christian the good soil
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So but as I've studied the mark passage and the Matthew passage
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I Have come to believe anybody watching those babies Yes well
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You can border on being the stony soil if if you go too far the direction you were just talking in other words
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If he if he comes in and he loved he likes what he hears He likes what he sees among us and so he makes a profession of faith.
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He gets baptized He gives a testimony and then he goes right back. It doesn't matter if it's a month later six months or two years later
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He goes right back To living in the slot all of it, then he never was saying that's the stony soil but this person in my view is a person who does hear the word and does bear fruit for a season and Then because he lets these things come up around him like you like if you're planted see a pictures good soil
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With good seed and the proper fruit. I mean plant with its proper fruit all in place and Root it has root because it's not on rocky soil so it has the root but the thorns are growing around it and it chokes him and So he is not as Fruitful nor is he as healthy because the bad stuff eats the same nutrients he wants
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So he's weak So yes, it could picture a person who is genuinely saved and baptized and starts growing and does well for a while but because he
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Does not study the word enough he gets off in the world system and his own flesh and the devil and his old friends and Stuff he gets back into it a little bit and while he's into that he ceases to be fruitful
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But there you go into John 15 and certain other places. It shows that God will then begin to prune him
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And he will either get fruitful again, or he'll go to heaven early. That's my view Mom, what were you gonna say?
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Well, I know J. Vernon McGee does not try to debate whether it's with which fruit is saved
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Which one's not or if they're saved or not. He said it's not about that It's not teaching on salvation.
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He says it's teaching on fruit bearing And that makes it easy We don't have to worry about it if you take that approach so the point the point the only question
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I would ask is what relevance does the passage have if it applies to lost people because They are not in the word anyway
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So I believe If you if you look at it as whether this is a useful passage or not
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It certainly is useful to a Christian because to a Christian and it serves as a warning that if you get involved in the very things that the lost people are involved in and You love them like they love them rather it be
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Workaholic that would be the cares of the world, but it's a guy that likes would rather be at work Than to be at church
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He would rather be and and that could be tied in with the deceitfulness of riches He's been convinced that if he can make more money, he'll be happier than he is now and then that can
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Tie together the cares get greater as he seeks more and more money And then when they have more money, there are more pleasures that they can take
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Become involved with do they begin to love those pleasures What was the other other things coming in?
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That's just anything Anything in life other than the Word of God Can come in and take importance over the word any of those things can choke the word now mom brought out something
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That is kind of my concluding point If you look in Matthew and you look in in Luke, it says that when these things begin to Grow up in your life
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That it chokes the word and you become unfruitful But the frightening thing about Mark chapter 4 and verse 18 if you read it very carefully verse 19
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It says that these things Entering in choke the word and it becometh unfruitful
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Which is more frightening than you yourself becoming unfruitful because let's say you become unfruitful and you get back in the word and God blesses your
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Bible study and you come back to the Lord And you prune away those things that weren't supposed to be there or he does it they're using this word, whatever.
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You're okay again What happens if you get off in this stuff so much? That the word becomes unfruitful
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That's the frightening thing because what's going to bring you back if the word is unfruitful if when you read the
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Bible, it's meaningless and Yet, I'm sure everyone in this room can think of a point in your life when that was the case when you picked it up out of duty
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I Hate to take a show of hands because I think it would be every adult in there You took it up out of duty and you read it and you went to sleep and it meant nothing
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We've all had times like that So the word was totally unfruitful at that point
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Because we were backslidden the very moment. We tried to read it We were reading it in the flesh out of duty because someone told us that's something we're supposed to do when you first get saved
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Read the word, you know pray get baptized not necessarily in that order fellowship and Witness you got the list.
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So Okay, it's time to do the Bible thing you go out and you witness with the same enthusiasm
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So we can do all of these things in the flesh and they're meaningless So anytime we read the
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Bible in the flesh it is unfruitful So it's just a warning against these things that if you do have a time when
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You sit down to read the word and it's not alive Ask yourself, which of the four things is making it this way.
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Is it cares? Am I so upset and worried about whether this is gonna work out in my life
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Whatever you're into whether it's your your job or whatever. It is. Am I so worried about that that That I can't commune with the
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Lord. Is it the deceitfulness of riches? Am I so busy trying to make money that that I just really not into the
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Bible right now I'm just it's not interesting to me anymore. Or is it the pleasure of this life?
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I'm just going around doing so much fun. I don't even take time to read the Bible Or is it other things that just get in the way and I just don't make time, which is it?
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It's one of those four things So anytime the Word of God is is not warm in your heart.
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It's not exciting. It's not interesting. It's not Fulfilling it doesn't make you
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Want to shout for joy or praise the Lord while you read it. One of those four things is in your life
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And it doesn't mean you lost your salvation It just means you've got a thorn growing up right in that soil with you so get rid of it
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You know ask the Lord to remove it. That's my interpretation of the thorny soil. I believe it applies to a
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Christian only I don't see any way it can even apply to a lost person, but I'm not dogmatic about it
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I don't care either way which way you interpret it as long as you watch out for these things Don't be caught up as a
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Christian in these four Things so you have to read all three of those passages to get all four of the things.
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Yes, Russell Right No, I disagree with him on his interpretation of this passage because I if I remember right
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He says only the fourth one is saved, but I really don't remember It's been so long Have y 'all read it lately
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Raymond and Sharon because I know you're going through you might check him out on that and see what he says But I I've read several commentaries, so I don't remember if it's he or Matthew Henry But I know some of them think only the fourth one is a saved person
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Many of them I would say most of them think the last two are saved people the thorny soil and the good soil
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And I would agree with them Right Yeah, I do.
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I agree. That's why I interpret this way is I believe it has no application
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If you don't have the last two soils being saved people You might as well not even have the parable
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Yes Right.
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It's something it's one of those four things. The thing that keeps people from service is they're not in the word
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And it's the it's the word that brings the fruit and so if the word is choked out by those four things
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They're not going to be bearing fruit at that moment Now another interesting thing is we can each look at our own life and realize we're we're
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We go back and forth between those at different time periods For instance everyone can think of a time when you were without fruit
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You can think of a time when you bore 30 fold you can think of a season when you bore a hundred fold
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So no one of us is stuck in any one of those categories you go back and forth depending on Whether you're filled with the spirit
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Most the time or walking in the flesh most the time or where you are on that spectrum at that given time in life
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So that's the best way. I think it's useful But but there are good men who believe it doesn't apply to the
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Christian in which case They would have to ask answer my question then then what use does it have what purpose does it serve to even know that information so I think
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You know, I look at my life I know I've had seasons of unfruit bearing where I didn't bear any fruit, but even trees have that Isn't it true that most trees don't bear fruit all season?
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They have times when they're coming coming stronger Or when they're needing pruning like the peaches down there in Mahalia.
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They have to be pruned. Yes And then that's what
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I'm saying either they're either gonna bear more fruit or they're gonna go home early The difference now the difference in the stony soil is they can live to be a hundred and four to be perfectly happy and rich and Everything going right.
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That's how you know, they weren't really saved. I mean in there and they're living wrong living wrong a
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Saved person if he doesn't stay in the word, he won't live to be a hundred and four He will live until the
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Lord says you're out of here because you're messing up my testimony And that that's another
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Distinguishing mark between the Christian and the lost person the lost person even our psalm we studied this morning says that he prospers
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He flourishes but like grass It's just for a season and that's all the flourishing he'll ever have for all eternity, but we
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Flourish in a different way. We flourish more like a palm tree or a
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Cedar tree. It's amazing how
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God uses All the things he's created to give these pictures of spiritual truths
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So stay away from the thorns young people, especially Everything the world has to offer for you out.
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There's a thorn Thorny bush and it will choke the word from you and get the word choke.
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You stop bearing fruit Then you have to get a whooping from God any other thoughts on it well
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You've got churches you have churches full of people who come every
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Sunday and You've seen them every one of you've known and and they're not any more mature as a
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Christian than they were 40 years ago Because the word is choked from them by these other things or either that or they're just growing real slow they just real slow and they
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May learn a new principle here and there along the way and they just not they're not flourishing like they should brother
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Raymond Yeah Yeah, you may not have ever gotten to know it if you didn't have to run into him again, so it takes effect
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Everything we do takes effect. Just if it's the exact effect God wants it to And that's what we're here for.
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Yes, sir That's true, too.
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Yeah It's like you're eating poison while you're eating food, you know, you eat some food, but you eat poison with it
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Maybe junk food would be a good corollary eating cardboard along with beefsteak
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Okay, that was a good class let's have prayer together father Thank you for your word. We ask you to help us to be watchful for these thorny soil thorny
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Bushes that are around us and to keep our guard up and when we see one of these whether it's the cares of the world the deceitfulness of riches pleasures of this life or other things coming in whatever it might be that we would put it aside and Let the
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Word of God have preeminence in our thought life and in our hearts Go with our young people and teenagers, especially through the early teenage years and college years that they be very watchful for these things
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And we pray for our young people that you would guard them and protect them help them be very fruitful