Seeds and Soil

It’s not too low, praises there may grow. They’re back with us. They’ve been kind of under the weather. It’s good to have them back.

And just some announcements. I’m going to tell you, Vacation Bible School is around the corner. If you haven’t helped sign up, Caroline can still put you probably somewhere. But here’s what you start to need to do now. You start getting the folks and start advertising. Best advertisement a church has is its own people. So what you need to do is just let folks know that we’ve got Vacation Bible School coming up in July. They need to be here or they’re going to miss out. And if it’s anywhere close to what it was last year, it’s going to be awesome. So it’s just a great, great week. And just be advertised and all those kind of things.

And then Wednesday nights, we start a new study Wednesday night. We’re going to go back to Lee Strobel and The Case for the Creator. And we’re going to look at some things about creation versus evolution. And a few things just to think about and how majestic and amazing God is and His creation. And we’re going to hear a little bit from the scientists. You’re kind of wondering, well, we always think that the scientists are on this side. Well, not all of them. And we’re going to hear from scientists from every perspective and background. And we’re going to be doing that over the course of the next couple of weeks. And just to make you think a little bit. So be here. Plus, it’s just good. We have great food. And it’s just a great time.

So those are some things that are coming up. Remember, it’s not your church unless you get involved. And we always want everybody involved.

We’re going to have a time of welcoming now. So I want you to just kind of look around. You see an unfamiliar face. Or maybe you just haven’t seen somebody since Wednesday night. I want you to get on over to them, welcome them, and just say, man, it’s good to worship with you. So let’s stand now and just briefly look at each other. Let’s go, man, it’s good to worship with you. It’s good to worship with you guys. All right, we’ll come on back around and we’ll sing our next song. So head on back to your seats.

Next up is number 615, “To the Work.” So you stand, we’ll sing. Keep standing, we’ll sing.

Gang, I’ll ask you guys something, okay? Do you ever go off sometimes running off by yourself and then all of a sudden you realize, I need somebody with me? Do you do that sometimes? Okay, you’re coming to a big intersection, okay? Say you got to cross Savannah Highway. You know how busy that thing is? And you’re there by, do you want to cross that by yourself? What would you want to do? Why? Why would you want somebody to cross it with you? Because you don’t want to get hit by a car. Okay, that’s a pretty good reason, I think. How about you guys? Yeah, yeah, you don’t want to get hit. You want to be safe, right?

You want people to say, I got a picture that I took with my granddaughter, okay? And let me show it to you, okay? Man, it’s one of my favorite pictures. You know, she’s holding hands with her papa, okay? Now, she’s only about two years old here, so we’re walking over at Middleton Gardens, and we’re just kind of walking. So the choir can see it, I’ll let the choir see it. So, okay, okay, okay, because they always want to see something.

Okay, so why do you think she wants to hold papa’s hand? Why, Mackenzie? Hmm? To be safe. Exactly. That’s a great answer. That’s exactly right. She wants to be safe. Yeah, that’s why we hold, see, I want you to have this kind of picture. Let me back up. I want you to be, see, when I get closer to that thing, that’s what happens.

When you, as you grow up, sometimes we think, well, I can do everything on my own. You ever think that way when you get older? As the older you get, I don’t need my mama and my daddy. I don’t need my grandmama and my granddaddy. And some people even think, I don’t need the Lord. But I want to tell you something, no matter how old you get, this should be the picture that you guys want of Jesus, okay? That no matter where you go, He’s walking with you. Even old guys like me, I’m about to go into something, I’m sitting there going, okay, Lord, take my hand. You’re going to have to run the show up because I want to be safe with You. And I want you to always remember, this is how Jesus wants it. Jesus, before He left the planet, okay, and went back to heaven, He said this statement, He says, He said, I’m going to be with you always, even to the end of the age. Even to one day when this, when this earth ends and heaven comes back and sets it up here, Jesus says He will be with you all the time. Keep you guys safe, because that’s pretty important. Jesus wants to keep you safe. And so sometimes when we go out and we think we know better and we don’t and we get scared, sometimes all we need to do is do this.

My daughter, I mean our granddaughter and my daughter too, when she was little like this, we’d come to a street and she knows I ain’t supposed to be in the street. And I want to get to, and then she’d stop, she’d wait, and you know what she did? She’d go, put that hand out. And you know what daddy would do? Come alongside and I’d take her hand and we’d walk across the street. Sometimes when, I want you to understand this, when you get to a place where you’re going, you know, I’m not, I’m not real sure. And sometimes if we do this with God, you know what He does? He grabs our hand. Okay. Does that make sense? That He wants to keep you safe? I want you to always think of Jesus wanting to keep you safe. That’s kind of what He does best, that He knows what the best is for you. And the Bible says, and the promise is, He is with us always.

Okay. Let’s pray. Father, thank You. Thanks for taking our hands. Even when we’re old adults like me, that when I’m about to go something I’m not quite sure of, I can stick my hand out there and You’ll grab it. So help us always, whether we’re little or we’re big or in the middle, we’ll stick our hand out. You’ll grab it and You’ll help us. That’s what You do. You want to keep us safe. Now let these kids have a great children’s church. Watch out over and take care of them. In Your Son’s name we pray. Amen. Thanks guys.

The offertory this morning is number 579 in your hymnal, Shine, Jesus, Shine. So you stand, we’ll sing. Good, don’t it? A lot of kids. Go on. They’re off. Tell you, with his little ones, there’s life. We say that. We say.

Come to our prayer time today. Let’s remember, folks. Just got handed this before the service. Will Postel, a longtime member, former member here, passed away on Thursday. Don’t know anything about the service or the funeral. I think it’s going to be a graveside. But I’m sure that’ll be in the paper. Was a member here. Someone said this. He loved his Lord. He loved his church. And he loved his family. I don’t know if he can get much better than that. So just keep Will Postel’s family in your prayers.

And then just, like I said, it’s good to have Jim and Sue back with us. This thing that’s been going around really kicked them pretty hard. And they finally got some good medication. And it’s just good to have them back. And then you just see those. Good to be back. Yeah. And then you see those that are on the list. And a couple new names. And then also add this. I heard Buck’s got kidney infection. So that’s why he’s not here today. So just keep Buck in your prayers. And that could be a pain. That can hurt. So we’ve got a number of folks that we need to pray for. And then I’m sure you’ve got something. And also, just someone new that we’ve got a couple folks we added to the list. I know Seabrook’s on the list. So just keep Seabrook in your prayers. Got a number of health issues and seeing the doctor. And you guys know this, too. Whenever somebody in the family goes down, everybody else in the family gets wore out taking care of that person. So just keep Donna and everybody in your prayers, too.

So we’ve got a number of folks. So we’re going to go have a time of prayer. And this is just our time just to talk with God. You know, I just think that’s probably one of the most important times of the whole service. Where We just bow our heads. Get in that humble position of just bowing our heads and closing our eyes. And just say, Lord, we’ve got to turn some things over to You. Because I can’t do it. And You’re the one in charge. And I want Your will. And I just want You to cover me. And I want You, if You need to be holding my hand, I just want You to know. And I just want to be under Your care. So I want you to bow your heads. I want you to close your eyes. And I also want you, while you’re doing it, to pray for our search committee. You know, if there’s a thankless job, that’s got to be it. You know, I don’t know who they’re going to be able to please and all that kind of stuff. People are wondering why not yet and all those kind of things. God’s got a certain special person for this church. And you just keep them in your prayers. That their hearts would be open and their minds would be open to hear the Lord clearly. And so, just pray for them. So this is a good time to do that. So again, bow your heads. Close your eyes. And now, in the next few minutes, in just a silence, you have a talk with the Lord. Let’s do that right now.

Father, thank You. Thank You for not being us. Thank You for being a God who loves us in spite of anything. You died for us again while we were yet sinners. Father, thank You for being all-powerful. That You can do all things. That You are totally in charge. You know all things. And You can be everywhere at the same time, unlike us. You have an incredible plan, not only for our lives, but for everyone. All eternity. And the neat thing is that You get to include us in it. Don’t know why, but You do. But the Lord, we have some needs now. And we’re just struggling, many of us. And whether it’s illness, or it’s relationships, or it’s trying to figure out what’s coming up next. There’s just a lot of things that we just struggle with. Help us to realize if we’ll just hold Your hand, walk us through it. In fact, in one of Your greatest psalms, You say, “Yea, though I walk through even the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For Thou art with me, and Thy rod and Thy staff will comfort me.” Lord, comfort us today. Help us to hear Your word clearly. Help us to take it into our hearts. And let it come in. Let it soak. Lord, help us to be changed. So that when we walk out, the world will see a changed person in some way. And by seeing a changed person, they’ll see You. And we ask this in the name that’s above every name. The awesome name of Jesus. And all God’s people said, Amen.

1991 was an interesting year. An interesting movie came out that year. Don’t know if some of you remember it, but it was called City Slickers. Y’all remember that movie? Jack Palance was in it. Billy Crystal was in it. And the movie is basically about a bunch of young city slickers. You know, that come out to a dude ranch just to kind of get away. And part of being on a dude ranch is bringing in, you know, the herd. And so they get to be a cowboy for a couple of weeks. And Jack Palance is one of the last of a dying breed of cowboys. I tell you, that’s one of the toughest looking guys I can remember ever to cross the screen. Whether it was television or film. But there’s a scene in the movie where Palance and Crystal are kind of on their horses. And they’re just kind of just trodding along, along this prairie and on the range. And they just start talking. And here’s what Palance says. He said, “You know, cowboys lead a different life when there were cowboys. They’re a dying breed. Still means something, though, to me, though. Because in a couple of days, we’ll move the herd across the river. We’ll drive them through the valley.” He goes, “Ah, there’s nothing like bringing in the herd.” And Billy Crystal looks at him and says this, “See, you see, that’s great. Your life makes sense for you.” Palance just kind of laughs at him. And Crystal goes, “Well, what’s so funny?” He says, “You city folk, you worry a lot, don’t you?” He said, “How old are you? 38?” Crystal goes, “No, well, 39.” He Said, yeah, you all come out here about the same age, same problem. Spend 50 weeks a year getting knots in your rope. And then you think two weeks up here, we’ll untie them for you. None of you get it. He said, you know what the secret of life is? And Billy Crystal goes, no, what? And he does this. He said, what’s that? Finger? He said, no. He says, it’s one thing. One thing. You stick to that, and nothing else matters. He says, well, that’s great. What’s the one thing? He said, well, that’s for you to figure out.

We’re going to talk about a parable this morning as Jesus tells another story. And I’m here to tell you this. You get this one thing right, it will help you a ton. Jesus teaches us that seeds are constantly coming up our way and bring us to a place of bearing fruit for the kingdom. Now, how you receive the seed indicates your level of obedience and usefulness. And we’re going to look at the seed today.

Now, let me just share something. You know, Jesus did not just bring forgiveness of sin. He did that. And if that’s all there was, that’d be awesome just in itself. But there’s so much more than that. Jesus brought us the kingdom of God. Do you realize when you get saved, the kingdom of God comes down to you? Do you understand how awesome that is?

Now, I found this definition, which I thought was pretty neat. The kingdom of heaven or kingdom of God is nothing less than the power of God in heaven entering the world to heal every alienation, every brokenness in every dimension of human life. So that includes everything socially, economically, racially, physically, emotionally, psychologically, and most of all, spiritually. He wants to heal that.

Now, it’s not perfect. There’s only one day when that’s going to happen. Okay. We don’t get perfection till this earth is gone. And the Lord comes down and He enters this and He brings heaven with Him, as it says in Revelation chapter 21, and He sets up His millennial kingdom. But until then, you can still have the kingdom of God.

And sometimes we just operate like we don’t have a clue what the Lord wants us to do. And I’m here to tell you, He is dropping seeds. Here’s how it comes. Bible says this, and I think we miss this. Bible says it comes by hearing. You ever know how many times that’s used in the Bible? I mean, listen to this. Romans 10:17. Faith comes by what? By hearing and hearing by the word of God. Isaiah 55, if you’re going to go back to the Old Testament, give ear and come to me. Listen that you may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you. My faithful love that was even promised to David.

And then in these, in these stories, how does Jesus end them? Listen, and we just go right over those words. He who has ears, let him hear. Now, why would He say that? Because hearing is so important. Listening is so important.

See, here’s, let me tell you how earthly kingdoms do it. And I’ll tell you, if you watch the news, you watch Fox, CNN, any of that yesterday, you saw, how do earthly kingdoms do it? They do it by coercion and force. See, they don’t want to hear. They want to be heard. They want a hearing. It’s not about, I’m listening to you. You ever watch people debate, especially if you watch it on TV. And I’m telling you, it’s Fox, CNN, MSNBC. It’s any of them. What do they do? They talk over each other. It’s not about listening anymore. It’s about, it’s about being heard. And I’m thinking it’s going to be that way when we get the presidential debates and all those things. It’s, it’s, we have forgotten how to listen.

See, most leaders want soundbites, advertising, get people to do what they want. And I want to tell you, unfortunately, the church has almost become part of that. Christians have become. How does the kingdom of God go forward? Kingdom of God goes forward by receiving, listening, understanding. And sometimes it can be slow. We don’t like slow. See, God’s never in a hurry. You ever know what’s that about God? He’s never in a hurry.

The kingdom of God is a seed. It’s a seed. It’s not a boulder. See, a boulder will come down and break up the land. A seed transforms the soil. If Jesus is real, why doesn’t He just appear on national TV? Why don’t He just do a bunch of miracles and be Who He is? Why? Because we get bored with that. I mean, it happened in Jesus’ day. Jesus says, “My kingdom doesn’t work that way. My kingdom is not a boulder. My kingdom is a seed.” And the gospel is one of the craziest messages out there. I mean, how do you explain the gospel to somebody? Yeah, the King of everything, the Creator of the universe, the Sustainer of all life. What did He do? He comes off a throne. He comes down in human form. He goes through an immense amount of suffering and pain, and then He dies on a cross. I mean, how crazy does that sound? And then He comes with His message. What does His followers say? “Well, if you’re going to find yourself, you’ve got to first lose yourself. If you want power, you’ve got to humble yourself. You want riches, you’ve got to give away your money. You want to become like Jesus and grow? Then you’ve got to endure suffering and pain because it’s like a seed.” You know why the kingdom of God is not like earthly kingdoms? Because earthly kingdoms, ladies and gentlemen, is one day going to pass away. The Bible says.

So let’s look at our passage today. Matthew chapter 13. If you’ll stand with me for the reading of God’s Word, read the first nine verses. “That day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea, and large crowds gathered to Him. And He got out into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd was standing on the beach. And He spoke to many things to them in parables, saying, ‘Behold, the sower went out to sow, and he sowed. Some seeds fell beside the road. Some birds came and ate them up. Others fell on the rocky places where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears let him hear.’” Thank you for standing. Please be seated.

Now Jesus starts teaching in parables. Now again, the word parable comes from the Greek parable. And what that means, it means cast alongside. It will be something you would bring along to get people to listen. Now Jesus is talking, He’s not in the synagogues where they can, it’s probably hard to get up and, and, and in the middle of a synagogue service and kind of excuse yourself, where you can do that on the side of a hill, especially if you had a big crowd. So Jesus wanted to keep them engaged so He would tell stories. He would give these illustrations. But people started wondering about this. And you’ve got to understand that this is the point in Jesus’ ministry that from now on, this is how He’s going to preach. From now on, He preaches parables. In fact, in, in the next section of verses, His disciples going, “Jesus, why are you telling stories? What’s with the stories?” And He looks because, He says, the people that need to hear are going to be able to hear. And they’re going to understand. And the people who have already made up their minds, they’re not going to understand. And the neat thing about this is when Jesus talks to His disciples, and this is also recorded in Mark 4, is He tells them this, you get this parable right, you’ll get them all right. This is the central parable, the central truth of why I’m even telling these stories and why I’m here. That’s why this parable is so important.

Do you know how they threw seeds back then? Now, if I was probably to go to Lee’s farm, okay, Lee’s probably got his stuff in a row. Does he not, Caroline? Okay. He’s got them in a row, okay? That’s how farmers kind of do it now. They didn’t do that back then. They would take it, they would take seeds and just chunk them out there. I mean, where they landed, they landed. Or if they, if they weren’t worried about that, or they had too much, they might put it on their donkey, in a bag, put a hole in the bag, and wherever that donkey went, and those seeds fell, they fell, okay? Because you wonder in the story, why does it make sense? Because it’s formed on four different types of ground. Well, that’s how, because that’s how they did it. And when they planted wheat and barley back in those days, that’s how they planted. They didn’t get out there and plow. A lot of times, that was pretty hard ground, and they didn’t have time to do all that. So they would just chunk it out there. And that’s how they sowed their seeds. So, you know, we get this here, and it’s important. So let’s look at the four soils. What’s the first one? And here’s another thing about this parable. Jesus explains it. He doesn’t do that with all of them. I like the fact that Jesus explains some things. So I’m thinking if Jesus explains it, you might want to listen to it. So let’s go. Verse 18. Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches it away, which has been sown in his heart. This is the one whom the seed was sown beside the road.

Okay, that’s the first soil. It’s hard soil. And Jesus is talking, and you’ve got to remember, the soils represent our hearts. So Jesus is talking about a hard-hearted person. He’s talking about people who’ve already made their minds up. They’re not here. Do you ever met anybody like that? Someone, you’re talking to someone, and they give you that blank stare like, I’m not paying attention. And maybe it was something you said. Maybe that feeling you’re talking down to. Maybe that whatever. But you ever had that blank stare like, it’s going out there, but nothing’s being soaked in. You ever had anybody like that? Sure. It’s hard. It’s a hard heart.

Here’s the thing about seeds we need to understand. Again, remember, the kingdom of God is like a seed. It’s not like a boulder. It’s got to go under the ground. This soil is so hard, it just bounces off. I call it roadkill soil. What does it do? Number one, it redirects the seed. It doesn’t go back on the soil. It may bounce off and go somewhere it wasn’t supposed to go. It relinquishes the seed. It just kind of spits it back out there. It repudiates the seed, which means it has nothing to do with it. It says, I just don’t want anything to do with you. So all of a sudden, the kingdom of God, this valuable thing called the gospel comes down, and all of a sudden, you got hard hearts. I mean, that’s what’s going on here. It’s the roadkill soil.

And here’s my thing. Jesus is telling them, he’s looking at these people he’s telling the story to, and he’s going, are you listening? Are you listening? Is that what your heart’s like? See, that’s pretty clear. When your heart is so hard, it doesn’t matter. Gospel’s not coming in. Kingdom of God’s not coming in. Holy Spirit’s not coming in. That seed’s not coming in. He might as well throw it on concrete, because that’s how hard the ground is. I want to tell you, there’s a lot of people out there whose hearts are so hard, that no matter what God wants to put in there, no matter how He wants to heal their life, no matter what He wants to do in their life, they’re just not hearing it. They look at it and go, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. That’s what a cynic says. You’ve got to be a moron for being a Christian. I want to tell you, there’s people like that out there. See, what do seeds do? Seeds have to go underneath. They have to bury beneath the soil, and hard soil, it just bounces off.

Then he talks about a second soil. I call this the rocky road soil. It’s shallow. See, the hard soil needs to be plowed. You’ve got to dig through that thing. You’ve got to work that thing. You’ve got to get through that hardness. This soil, you’ve got to go deeper. It’s shallow. It’s rootless, though, and it’s rough. Here’s what it is. Now, listen to what he says. He says, one whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary. And when the affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.

It doesn’t say he doesn’t receive it. He does, and he’s real happy about it. In fact, the Bible says here, when he first hears the gospel, or he first hears about the kingdom of God, or he first hears what Jesus can do in his life, he goes, man, I want part of that. That’s what I want. Problem is, is it’s not about the Lord. It’s about, that’s what I want. It’s not what they can do for Christ. It’s what Christ can do for them. So they want Him to enter their kingdom, not them enter His kingdom. They want a blesser, not a Savior. They want a sugar daddy, not a King.

See, we’re suffering, and what we need is a solution. Jesus is saying, what you are, you’re a sinner, and what you need is a Savior. Here’s the deal. They make a decision, but it never leads to this thing called repentance. Does everybody understand what repentance is? Repentance didn’t just say, I’m facing this direction, and now I’m facing this direction. You know what the problem with that is? You’re still standing in the same place. Repentance in the military term would be to the rear march, not about face. He would not take a step in this direction. He would then turn, and he would start moving in this direction. That’s repentance saying, I want to be, I want to go where He goes. I want to be part of His kingdom.

Do you remember what was happening in Jesus’ ministry at this time? Jesus was all of a sudden now starting to talk some hard talk. He was talking about what was going to be happening in Jerusalem. In fact, He was making His turn to Jerusalem. And you know what was happening? People were bailing on Him. They were leaving Him to the point where Jesus looks at His disciples going, you going to leave Me too? See, it’s all about Jesus meeting my needs. They didn’t hear either, because they didn’t hear the true message.

See, all of a sudden you’ve got hard soil. Now you’ve got shallow soil. See, they can’t take the heat. I mean, that’s what He says here. The sun comes out, and all of a sudden the heat of the world comes in on them, and they can’t take the heat. And what’s the first thing they do? You’re not taking care of me, God. I don’t need this.

He talks about the third soil. I call it the ravaging soil, the choking soil. You know, the word choke in this part of the Bible means this. It means to strangle, to come up and just literally just get your, like you get your hands around somebody’s neck. Look what He says. Verse 22, and the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world, and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. Goes in a bunch with a bunch of other stuff.

Here’s the deal. Of all the soils, this one’s the most miserable. See, the hard soil, he’s not miserable. He knows what he wants. He doesn’t want part of it. He’s hard-hearted. He just says, nope, don’t want it. Let it just bounce off me and go off somewhere. The other soil even says that the shallow soil, yeah, I take, nah, nah, you’re not going to be there for me. I don’t want it. But this soil kind of wants it, but doesn’t want to give up the world. See, it says, you know, Lord, I want You in my life, but I want the world in my life too.

What’s the problem though? Jesus talks, let’s turn with you to Matthew 6, because Jesus talks about this in the Sermon on the Mount. Verse 24, chapter 6, no one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. He says what? You cannot serve God and wealth or mammon. And then He starts talking, remember what it says here. Why about this soil? It says, among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word and the worry of the the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

Well, in verse 25, in chapter 6, what does it say? It says, don’t be, Jesus said, don’t be anxious about anything. If God’s going to clothe, you know, the lilies in the field, why wouldn’t He clothe you? Worry about your food? He’s going to feed you. Worry about where you’re going to live? Look, He’s going to take care of you. Worry about your life, all those things? He says all these things. And Jesus, in this parable, says, He says, you’re worrying about all these things. And what does Jesus say about all those things? Well, He says in one of the greatest passages of Scripture, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” And then what He says, “And all these things shall be added unto you.” You see how Jesus puts all this together, how Scripture always comes together? And all of a sudden he got, what is a ravaging soldier? Well, it repels. See, it’s kind of like, I’m trying to figure out who to serve. And God’s, I want to tell you, God will not compete with you. God will not compete with the world. God says, if that’s what you want, go for it. Just remember, when that fails you, remember where I’m at.

It is seen as refuse. It’s junk soil. It looks, I mean, you look at the things of the world that does what? That decay and rot and crumble and rust. I mean, right, go back to Matthew chapter 6, where it sits there and it talks about, let’s find that thing real quick, where it says this, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, that neither moth nor rust can destroy, where thieves can’t break in and steal.” Where your treasure is, what? There your heart is also. Remember, this is the heart. The soils are the heart.

That’s just to be all in. I always think about the Clemson deal. All you Clemson fans, you can hang your hat on this one. Where Dabble, remember that first year? What was the theme? All in. See, God’s looking at us saying, God, I want you to be all in. All in. Are you all in? I mean, parents, think about this. You ever got bare minimum from your kids? You ever see young people, you get bare minimum, you kind of tell them something to do, and they do exactly to the letter what you want them to do. They don’t do any extra. See, you got their will, but you ain’t got their heart.

That song, “When I Surveyed the Wondrous Cross,” listen to this word, the part of it. “Love so amazing, love so divine, demands what? My life, my heart, my all.” That’s why when God says we’re to love Him, we’re to love Him with our what? Our heart, soul, our mind, our strength. 222. What does that mean? We love Him with everything about us. We’re not competing with the world. He’s not competing with the world. That’s important.

I mean, and here’s the deal about the third soil. It’s like, I mean, we throw Jesus around like it’s no big deal. I mean, are you listening? People are listening. We throw Jesus’ name like it means, like it has no meaning. We just throw it out there. We have a story this week. A guy named Gary Enrig, pastors in camp, talking about a story with his son. And he was driving, and his son, Stephen, was in the back seat. And every time his son saw something, he said, “Holy cow, Dad, look at that. Holy cow, Dad, look at that.” And he got to say, he was kind of bothering him. That kid was saying, okay, he was worried about one day in church, his son might go, “Holy cow, Dad.” So he pulled over, and he got out, and he said, son. He said, “You need to understand, we don’t use the word ‘holy’ before anything that’s not related to God.” So his son goes, like the Bible, like “Holy Bible”? He said, “Yeah, that sounds good.” He said, “Okay, I made it through.” All of a sudden, he’d get down the road, and all of a sudden, he hears from the back seat, “Holy Bible, Dad, look at that. Holy Bible, Dad, look at that.” Sometimes, guys, we just throw things that are holy just around like it’s no big deal. We let the world compete with us.

Then God gets to what I call the receptive soil. It’s rare. Do you realize it’s only one of the four? It’s one of four. Well, it tells you what. When the gospel goes out, and the kingdom of God is put out there, and people have a chance to receive this seed that can transform this soil. Because that’s what seed does. Seed transforms soil. That’s why Jesus talked about seed, planting seeds in people’s hearts, planting seeds in people’s minds. 25% get it, folks. I mean, think about those odds for a second. Three out of four won’t get it. That breaks it. I don’t know how that does for your heart. That breaks my heart. Three out of four people in this world just won’t get it. Some Will just be hard, be very cynical. Some are just going to be shallow. And then when the heat of the world kind of bears down on them, some are just going to sit there and say, “I’ll share Him with the world, but I’m not giving up the world for Him.” And then some says, “You come in, I want to take you in.” It’s rare. And when He takes it in, it reproduces. All of a sudden, it starts to grow. And it starts to do some things that are just unbelievable. And it starts to produce this thing called fruit. And people see things in your life that are different. And all of a sudden, the kingdom of God starts to heal things in your life. And your life changes.

I mean, look at the fruit of the Spirit. All of a sudden, there’s peace in your life. There’s joy in your life. Kindness in your life. Patience in your life. Love in your life. Goodness in your life. Faithfulness in your life. Self-control. All those things all of a sudden are in your life where they really weren’t in there before. Or if they were there, they were just a portion of what they could have been. And all of a sudden, God comes into your life with the kingdom. And all of a sudden, He changes.

Folks, I want to tell you, you know, the thing that would be attractive to me if I lived in the world was that there’s a better way to live. And God is telling these folks, folks, there’s a better way to live. That’s the wonderful thing about the gospel. You get to tell someone out there, there’s a better way to live. It’s refined. God comes in and He plants that seed. And it just, I mean, out of what was just nothing but dirt, all of a sudden, something starts to grow. And it changes everything. And it replenishes. It changes the very soil that’s around it. It breaks it up. And all of a sudden, nutrients start to move. And things that weren’t even helping things grow before, all of a sudden, things start to grow. And all of a sudden, it plants seeds so you can have more seeds.

You know the neat thing about a plant that grows up? You get seeds from it. Which means you can now, what was just one seed, can all of a sudden, down the road, become an orchard. And He’s looking at it going, are you listening? And when He looks at this, and we look at that receptive soil. Look at verse 23. He says, and the one on whom the seed was sown on the good soil, this is a man who hears the word, understands it, and indeed bears fruit and brings forth some hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Something’s coming. And the deal is that when we look at it, it’s in the present tense, which means it continually does it. It just reproduces over and over. You want your life to account for something? And you want to reproduce over and over. I want my life to do that.

Now let’s look at the gardener. You’re the soil, folks. Your heart is the soil. Well, what about the weed? God’s not asking you to weed. Okay, that’s what the gardener does. God’s not asking you to water. That’s what the gardener does. Okay, now every once in a while, God’s going to have to go in there and weed in your life. And you may not like it. You may need to pull some junk out of your life that He goes, you know, that’s not going to help you. Sometimes God’s going to have to prune you back. You’re probably not going to. That’s what the—God’s not asking you to do that. He will do that. What God is asking you to do is receive the seed. Folks, does that make sense? Let the seed come in and go into a heart that is receptive. God will take care of the rest. He’ll convict your life. And He’ll often start to do things in your life, bring people into your life, show you things that He wants you to do. All of a sudden, you’ll have a purpose in your life. All of a sudden, you’ll start making a difference in your life. That’s what He just wants you to take in the seed. Let the gardener do what the gardener wants you to do. I mean, He doesn’t want you to do. That’s His job. That’s the Holy Spirit’s job. Just receive seed.

The problem with that is, is there’s an enemy who doesn’t want you to do that.

Always hanging around. That’s why we have hard soils and shallow soils and thorny soils. Let me just kind of close with this story. A Haitian pastor was telling a story one time of a family that wanted to sell their house. They wanted to sell it for $2,000. It was a number of years ago, and it wasn’t a big house anyway, but he wanted to move. And so he put it on the market. So a guy came and said, “I’d like to buy your house.” The problem is, is he only had $1,000. But he wanted the house real bad, and the guy kind of felt for him a little bit, or seemed to feel for him a little bit. And he said, “Tell you what, I’ll make you a deal. I own, you can have everything on this property. You can have everything in this house except one thing. There’s a big old nail on the front door. That’s mine.” Guy goes, “Nail? I get the house, land?” “Yeah, sold.”

A couple years later, guy comes back and says, “I want the house back. I’d like to buy the house back.” Well, guy said, “I like the house. I like the land. I’ve made some improvements.” He said, “I really don’t want to sell.” Guy said, “But I want the house.” He says, “No, no, I’m going to keep the house.” He says, “Fine. That nail’s mine.” So he went down the street, down this one area, found a dead dog carcass. Took it, and guess where he hung it? Right there on that big old nail right there at the front door. Can you imagine what that smelled like? How long it smelled like that? Needless to say, it wasn’t long before that guy goes, “You can have the house. It’s your house. Take the house.”

See, that’s what Satan does in our lives if God doesn’t own it all. In fact, the first pastor I ever worked with said this, if God’s not Lord of all, maybe like this parable, not Lord at all. I want to tell you around. You think things are going great, and all of a sudden he comes in, and he just stinks it all up. Ladies and gentlemen, are you listening? I wonder if in a congregation this morning, are there some folks out there that are still the hard soils? Are there some folks out there that are shallow? Are there folks out there that are thorny? Can’t give some things up with the world. God’s not going to compete with you. See, the ones that really matter are the ones that are the good soils, that absorb the seed, take in the seed. Say, “God, change me. You as the gardener, do whatever you need to do. Let me grow, bear fruit.” Ladies and gentlemen, where are you? Here’s the deal. Are you listening?

Father, we’ve heard this morning. My question is, are our ears working? Or did we just hear but not comprehend? Our minds and our hearts receive the seed. Maybe there’s somebody out there that needs to just bring in as Savior and Lord. They’ve never done that. I would love to meet with that person, talk with them, and pray with them. Maybe there’s some folks who, over the years, have just been shallow Christians, or Christians that competed with the world. Or maybe we’ve received You, but now we’re not listening anymore like we used to. Just, we’re not growing. We’re not reproducing. We’re not making fruit. Plenishing. You’ve got a plan for us. Here’s Your plan. Lord, help us to receive seed this morning and hear You clearly. In Your Son’s name, we pray. Amen.

Donnie? All right. We’ll close this morning with number 316. Jesus is tenderly calling. You stand, we’ll sing. From the sunshine of love, we’ll bow.

My prayer is to get some seed this week. Absorb it, and God will do some neat things, and you’ll bear some fruit. My prayer is just that God will just, you know, come into your life, and you’ll be what someone needs to see. You know, I use that term, you know, you may be the only Jesus someone will see that. You know, folks, I’m going to tell you, there’s a lot of hardness out there. And the world, you’re the best thing for this church, promotion for this church. You’re the best promotion for the kingdom. People see something in you. They need to see something that’s so amazing. They just go, “Why did you do that? How did you do that? You could have done this, and you did.” My prayer would be that you would just come to a place where that just becomes, you Know, normal. You just become receptive soil. And so when God wants to do some things in your life, maybe, and my prayer would be, when you get up tomorrow morning, just look at the Lord. Say, Lord, I don’t know what You’ve got planned for me, but let me not miss it. Bring someone into my life that I can just maybe have a little bit of influence. We plant a seed in their life. Okay? That makes sense? We’re going to close out with something different today. Morgan, if you can put it up. This is an old prayer that I saw years ago. I remember when I saw it, I go, man, this is awesome. And so I put it on this little screen, and this will be our benedictory prayer as we go out. So let’s just kind of say it together, okay? If Christ touches anyone this week, it’ll be with my hands. If He sees anyone hurting, it will be with my eyes. If He listens to anyone, it will be with my ears. And if He goes anywhere this week, it will be with my feet. Why? For we are the kingdom. You’re dismissed.