Listen Up!

If you are a first-time guest with us or first time in a long time, what we’re about to do next may be extremely new or uncomfortable for you, but I promise this is good for us. We set aside a portion of our service every Sunday morning just for prayer. We, aside from wanting to call on the name of the Lord, aside from wanting simply to hear from His Word, we also want to offer our prayer to the Lord. We know that when we pray, God listens. And man, if this past week does not want to lead you to pray, I don’t know what’s going to. In light of the events of this past week, and for what Thursday was as just an annual reminder of the depths of sin and what it can ravage on a world in the 9/11 situation, I wanted to change the congregational prayer this morning. Just praying for our country. If you’re unaware, obviously Thursday was, goodness gracious, I guess the 24th, reminder of 9/11. As well, Wednesday, at some point in the day, Charlie Kirk was assassinated while bearing witness to Christ on a college campus. And as well, I forget what day it was specifically, but there was another school shooting outside of Denver about 12 miles away from Columbine High School, and that rings a bell for some of us. So, man, I just want to pray for our country. I just want to pray that the Lord would just get a hold of America. Regardless of what you may believe politically or how you intersect faith and politics, what we can all recognize is that the people of America and of the world desperately need Christ. And there is a day coming when Jesus will come, and we want to make sure as many people are coming with us into His kingdom, whether from America or from the other nations regardless. So I want you to take a moment, grab a neighbor if you’re comfortable, pray out loud, just pray for the welfare of our country. Pray for Charlie Kirk’s family. He leaves behind a wife and two precious kids that now have to deal with this publicly. The families of another school shooting. You please take it away and I’ll put a bow on it here in a second. Thank you.

Holy Spirit, God, we’re all coming into this sanctuary this morning with, God, like a buffet of different experiences and emotions from this past week. God, some of us had really good weeks and celebrated birthdays. God, some of us had really hard weeks and went through medical crisis. Lord, some of us had really dark weeks and we’re once again plagued by the barrage of lies that the evil one has for us. God, as we see sin and its effects on TV, as we remember it in the calendar, and we even witness it in our own lives and our own souls, God, we are coming to you from a variety of places, and we are a people that needs to hear a good word from Your Word. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would bring that forth this morning. I pray that you would comfort those that need comforted, God. That you would save those who do not yet know you, Lord. You would convict those that are living in things that you don’t love, that aren’t good for them. I pray against distractions over these next few minutes. I pray that we would be really receptive to Your Word, that you would get me out of the way, Holy Spirit. Please, God. Obviously, I want to pray for Erica Kirk and her children, God, as they’re dealing with what they’re dealing with in front of a nation, God, that you would comfort them, that their local pastors at their church would take really good care of them. God, I pray for the families of the kids that were senselessly murdered this week in Denver, God, that you would take care of them, God, that you would help them to see you in the midst of ridiculous violence. And God, for us as a nation, just one more annual reminder of what happened, I pray that you would break any confidence we may have in ourselves. God, we are a vapor, and we could be snuffed out in a moment. We need you. We need you to sustain us. We need you to secure us. We need you to fight for us over these next few minutes. Holy Spirit, please get a hold of us. Help us to listen to you. We love you, and it’s in Your great name that we pray. Amen. Amen.

Well, if you were to try to start a global movement, whatever that might be for you, maybe for you it might be some sort of essential oils industry that’s going to take over all of the nation or all of the world. Or for you it might be some sort of tech innovation that you’re trying to start this new company. Or maybe you’re just trying to spread a little happiness and a little joyfulness, or whatever it is, if you were trying to get a message and a movement to the four corners of this world, I am curious, what would you do? What would you avoid? How would you start a global movement? Clearly, you need to attract a little buzz to yourself. You need to figure out what is your message. You need to catch things when they fall off the lectern. How would you start a global movement?

When you look at the Bible, Jesus oftentimes does things and says things that we would not do and say. God has a wisdom that is higher than ours. He has a way that is better than ours. And this morning, we’re going to start to look at one of those things. If I were starting a global movement, I would have one message, and I would make it as clear as possible. And I would want to make it as acceptable as possible. Jesus has a different way. Jesus, just when His crowds started gathering, just when His numbers started skyrocketing, Jesus did something different. As Jesus was healing people, performing miracles, exorcising demons, crowds started to gather. Jesus then, when the crowds were gathered, He would begin to teach people, but He would instruct them in a way that is foreign to us and just does not make sense to me.

Today, we’re going to begin a new series looking at this instruction. It’s called “Stories That Shape Us.” We’re going to be looking at parables. Parables are Jesus’s main teaching method. We like to look at some of the moral commands Jesus gives. We like to stake our claim on those. We like to look at some of the promises of grace and forgiveness, and that’s all fine and dandy, too. But in fact, the majority of what Jesus taught did not come in the straightforward, “Blessed are the…” “Woe to these…” Most of what Jesus taught was in what we might call a riddle. So, we are going to look at some of these. We’re going to look at these parables. And my desire as we do this is to equip you with a better grasp of the majority of what Jesus taught and to help you find your place in God’s story. That’s the whole point of all of this.

This morning, we’re going to begin out of Matthew chapter 13. If you have your copy of the Bible, you can open it up or turn it on to Matthew chapter 13, and you go ahead and begin turning there. I want to kind of set the stage for where Jesus is at. Matthew chapter 1 and 2, Jesus is born. He completes a long fulfillment of all these genealogical lineage and tracing. Jesus is finally on the scene. Matthew chapter 3 and 4, Jesus kind of has His coming out party. John the Baptist announces His presence. He is baptized and immediately goes into the wilderness for His temptation from Satan. Matthew 5, 6, and 7 is what we call the Sermon on the Mount. Some of that teaching that oftentimes guys like I point to as the very core of what Jesus had to teach. Sermon on the Mount, 5, 6, and 7. And then starting in chapter 8, that’s when we might say that the bulk of Jesus’s ministry has really begun. In chapter 8, that’s when He starts healing people. That’s when He’s starting to feed people. He is, of course, starting to teach folks, and huge crowds are gathering.

It all leads to this point in Matthew chapter 13 where a crowd is so big it forces Jesus out of a home, off of a beach, into a boat just to be able to address all of the people gathered to hear what this mysterious teacher has to say, and He teaches them in parables. Parables make up at least 35% of what Jesus had to say. Parables are interesting because at the same time they reveal truth to those that are receptive and they conceal truth from those that are resistant. Parables call people to a personal decision about Jesus. Parables use earthly objects and events to illustrate spiritual truths and lessons, especially the arrival and the nature of God’s kingdom. You see, Jesus comes on the scene to fulfill prophecy and make a way of salvation. Not just to save individuals or to save a whole ethnic people, but to inaugurate a kingdom which will comprise all nations, all tongues, all languages, and all peoples. One day when we see Jesus face to face, and the words of that song, “Come Jesus Come,” are not just sung in faith, but are experienced in sight. One day we will be full partakers of the kingdom physically. Right now we are partakers of the kingdom spiritually. And these parables teach us about the kingdom.

I didn’t get what I’m about to give you next in seminary. I didn’t get it from a commentary. I got it from a kids book that Becca found which we are reading to our kids about the parables. And this is brilliant, guys. If you want to know the best teaching in the world, go to kids books that are reputable because they can break stuff down in a way that I just can’t. This book about parables says that each parable is a doorway, a window, or a mirror. A doorway invites you in. And these parables that are doorways invite you into the kingdom. Some of the parables are like a window. You see through them and you get a glimpse of how the kingdom works. Finally, some parables are mirrors. You look at them and you see yourself. You get an idea. Are you a citizen of God’s kingdom or not?

So, over the next month and a half as we are looking at the parables, some of them will invite you. They will invite you to join God’s family. Other parables will just give you an idea of how God’s family is supposed to act. Finally, some of the parables will help you see, regardless of your church background, regardless of how much you read your Bible, regardless of how much you might put in a plate, they will help you see, are you actually in God’s family at all.

So, all that being said, let’s look at the first parable we are going to study. This is Matthew 13:1-9. Again, on that day, Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. Such large crowds gathered around Him that He gets into a boat and He sits down while the whole crowd stands on the shore. You get this idea that Jesus trying to capitalize on some acoustics, trying to get a little space between Him and the crowd. He gets in this boat. Probably Peter is keeping Him in basically the same spot. Jesus, my man, is keeping His balance while He’s doing His teaching thing, and He is teaching the crowds from the boat.

Verse three, He tells them many things in parables. This eager group of people, folks just ready to be ready just to be like instructed, ready to be told what to do. And He goes to parables saying, “Consider the sower who went out to sow. As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seed fell on rocky grounds where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly since the soil was not deep. But when the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it. Still other seed fell on good ground and produced fruit. Some a 100, some 60, some 30 times what was sown. Let anyone who has ears listen.”

Simple enough, right? On its face, this is a parable about a farmer sowing some seed. Now, it’s a little different back then if this seems strange to you. Fields and farms were not protected by fences in the same way that our property is. It was kind of considered like public land for transportation but private land for capitalizing on. So a farmer is just kind of walking through his field and he’s got a bag of seed or a big tray of seed and he’s just kind of tossing it. Now in that field you’d have all sorts of property, all sorts of land. You’d have the rough places where everybody has been walking. You would have some good lands where he’s used to getting a crop back. He’d have some land that’s not so good. But he’s just taking the seed and he’s tossing it.

The first place the seed lands is on the path. That’s the place where everybody’s been walking, including him. And that seed, it’s just immediately eaten up by birds. The second place is the seed falls on rocky ground. It’s just like shallow rocky stuff, and the seed just it can’t grow. The roots can’t grow. The third, the seed falls in like thorny patches. And while the stuff might start taking root and growing up, ultimately all the thorns and the briars and the brambles prevent any sort of real growth. But finally, the fourth place, the fourth place the seed falls is good ground. And it has unimaginable return.

There’s four soils, but only two results. It’s so clear to see. It’s either fruitless or it’s fruitful. Whether the soil fails to produce because of its hardness, its rockiness, or its thorniness, the end result’s the same. A life producing seed produces nothing. It’s wasted. But the good soil produces an unbelievable return. Man, if that seed had a one-to-one replacement, that would be fine. That man, he would it’d be net zero. If it had a tenfold replacement, look at verse eight. He says 160-30. If he had a tenfold replacement, that’d be enough for him to eat, sell some of the produce, and sow again. That’s fine. Jesus says the baseline is 30fold. Man, a 30fold return. That’d be like wealth. Jesus also says some of that good ground produced a hundredfold. Utterly rich.

It all feels simple enough. There’s a farmer, their seed, their soil. Some of the soil doesn’t produce, some of the soil does produce. It feels simple enough, but the disciples understand that there’s something they don’t understand. Why would Jesus be so complicated when He’s got a crowd gathered? I’m looking at 120 folks. I want to be as clear as possible right now. No way in the world would I try to muddy the waters of what I’m saying. Jesus has hundreds of people gathered about Him. Why would He be complicated? Why would He start a global movement with obscure riddles about farming? That’s the disciples’ question. Verse 10, the disciples come up and they ask Him, “Hey man, why are you speaking in parables?” So Jesus answers, “Because because the secrets of the kingdom of heaven have been given to you to know, but it’s not been given to them. For whoever has, more will be given to him, and he will have more than enough. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.” That’s why I speak to them in parables because they don’t see, hearing, they don’t listen or understand.

Jesus makes it really clear. He’s speaking to two types of people represented by four types of soil. There are insiders and outsiders, the halves and the have-nots. What Jesus is saying though is that it’s all about your posture towards spiritual truth. I’m looking at a group of people here. The defining question is, what is your posture toward God’s word and toward Jesus? Are you ready to receive? Jesus says that when you embrace spiritual truth, it grows inside of you. However, when you don’t use it, it will wither and die. In other words, to use different language from the Bible, it’s not enough to hear. It’s not enough to read. It’s not enough to be exposed. What you need is to be a doer, an embracer, a receiver.

Jesus is saying, “I’m using parables because some of the people here, they don’t care. It doesn’t matter what I say. It doesn’t matter how good I say it. They don’t care. They will not embrace. They will not apply. I’m using parables because some people here just do not care. But for those that care, they’re gonna get it. And they’re going to get more and more and more. They’re going to get everything I’ve got to offer them.”

It reminds me of one of the guys that joined one of the experiencing God groups that kicked off this past week. This past week is kind of week zero. No real content. We’re just getting to know each other and we’re just saying, “Hey, why why are you here? What’s what’s led you here?” One of the leaders asked his group that and one of the group members said, “You know, I grew up in church. I I’ve got a relationship with Jesus, but a couple months ago, Pastor Jeremy kind of just like in a like spur-of-the-moment decision invited people down front to pray. And in that moment, I felt at the same time like I could not stand up and I could not avoid going down front. There was this voice telling me, ‘Go down front. Get prayed over.’ So, I go down front. I’m getting prayed over and all that’s real cool. And then That same voice prompts me later to start reading my Bible. So, I start reading my Bible. That same voice tells me, “Hey, start journaling about what you’re reading.” So I start doing it and then Pastor Jeremy and Pastor Al and Mr. Johnny start talking about experiencing God. And that same voice tells me, “You got to do this, man. This person in one of our groups, I’m calling him John. John gets this because he understands that what God is going to give me, if I act on it, God’s going to give me a little bit more.” And that’s the offer for everybody here today. You’re going to get something today. The question is, are you going to embrace it and act on it or not? For those who act on it, Jesus says more will be given. For those who are hearers only and not doers, what they have will be taken from them.

You see, Jesus goes on to explain this prophecy that’s being fulfilled in verses 14-17. And He’s saying, “Hey, way back in Isaiah’s time, right now during Jesus’s time, and in the future in 2025, there will be people who have fruitless hearts that are part of my movement.” You see, in ancient Israel, in Jesus’s crowds, and in churches today, there are people who want what God can give them, but they don’t want God Himself. They are characterized by hard hearts, stuffed up ears, and blind eyes, being exposed to the same things as truly devoted followers but without any of the life-satisfying, soul-saving benefit. If Jesus, if His purpose was to build a crowd, He would not have used parables. If His purpose was to pump numbers, He would not have used these riddles. But that wasn’t Jesus’s purpose. His purpose was to start a kingdom. So He did not come to entertain crowds. He came to find devoted disciples. Which one are you? Are you here to be entertained or are you here because you are ready to devote yourself to the teaching of Christ?

Jesus’s reasoning prompts this major question. Who’s He talking about? What’s He talking about? I think the disciples, they’re hearing Jesus explain and they’re probably like, “Man, I wish I wouldn’t have asked because I’m a little more confused now.” It’s like, “Hold on, Jesus.” Like, are what? I have to imagine that’s what they were like. Remember, this is at the beginning of Jesus’s ministry. They don’t have years of context. They don’t have years of fireside conversations with Him at night talking about the events of the day. They don’t have years of Him saying, “Hey, now’s not my time. That’s going to come later.” They don’t have all that. This is early. And Jesus is saying, the people that aren’t going to listen, I’m going to make it harder for them. The people that don’t want to see what I’m doing, I’m going to make it harder. But those who are ready to listen, those who are ready to see, those who are ready for it, I’m going to entice them. I’m going to woo them. I’m going to incite their interest. I’m going to wet their appetite. That’s why He did these parables.

You see, there’s four soils, but there’s only two results because there’s only two types of hearts really. There’s a heart that wants to obey Jesus, and there’s a heart that just wants things from Jesus. You see, the crowds were gathered because He was healing, because He was feeding thousands of people with a lunch. They were gathering because He was scandalous and He had something interesting to say. But Jesus was not after the crowd. He was after this remnant of people. He was after this small core. And I’ll be honest, I think crowds gather in churches for similar reasons. People and crowds gather in churches all the time to get things from God. They gather to be entertained. They gather to keep tabs on a social network, not to foster a deep love for the Lord that pushes them to self-sacrifice.

Man, which one are you? Is your heart this morning? Is it rocky? Is it hard? Is it thorny, man? Or is it good? Not like morally good, but man, ready to receive what God has for you? Let’s look at how Jesus explains these four soils, though. Turn with me to verse 18. Jesus says, listen to the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown on the path. The one sown on rocky ground. This is one who hears The word and immediately receives it with joy. That’s a great thing. But he’s got no root and it’s short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away. Man, I hate that.

Now the one sown among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word and it becomes unfruitful.

Finally, verse 23, but the one sewn on good ground. This is the one who hears and understands the word who does produce fruit and yields some 100, some 60, some 30 times what was sown.

Jesus helps us explain the hard path. Man, those are hard hearts. We all know the person who simply does not understand the message of Jesus and cannot embrace Him. What Jesus says is that Satan is actively involved in keeping that heart. Man, God’s word and the gospel just bounce off. No matter how many verses of the day you share on social media, no matter how many times you bring up Jesus to them, no matter how many times you offer to pray for them, man, it’s like all those good words just bounce off. These are folks that read the Bible and hear sermons with no change in their life, no love for Jesus.

Secondly, Jesus says that the rocky soil, those are shallow hearts. When push comes to shove, the immediate joy of receiving the word is stamped out by any difficulty it takes to follow it. Man, God’s word and the gospel just simply don’t take root. That is somebody who has an initial yes to your Bible study, an initial yes to men’s ministry, an initial yes to Jesus, but fades away because God isn’t actually that captivating for them. The moment it gets hard to be a doer, they’re done.

Third, Jesus says that the thorny soil, thorny soil is a divided heart. Man, over time you see this because the desire for Jesus is choked out by other desires and their life with Jesus grows up alongside a life for wealth, a life of anxiety, a life of pursuing other things. And eventually the pursuit of other things chokes out the love for Jesus because Jesus is not their true love. God’s word and the gospel don’t last in these hearts. So many of our children fade away from the faith, not because we’ve done a poor job of raising them in it, but because their hearts and their affections and their love are divided. And what the Bible says is if Jesus is not the Lord of everything, He won’t be the Lord of anything eventually. And your love for Jesus will get choked out.

But the good soil, man, those are ready hearts. Those are folks who receive the word because Jesus is their first love, their master. These are people who want to obey what God has to say and they remain faithful to it. God’s word and the gospel bear fruit in their lives and you can’t deny it. They live lives of love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness and the rest. They help other people come to know Jesus as Lord. They encourage the the the mess out of you. These are folks who want to just have a good word for you. These are folks that are going to love you despite you. These are folks that when you look at their life, you see a trail of other Christians behind them because of them. That is what Jesus is after. Jesus is after changing us. And you see good hearts because those are folks that have been changed by God.

A guy named Craig Bloomberg, much smarter than me, and he writes about the Bible. He says this, “The first three kinds of soil are all inadequate. None of them stands for people who were ever true believers, despite certain outward appearances. For farmers, only those plants that bear good fruit count for anything. What counts is not a profession of faith, but a perseverance in faith.”

Man, I tell you, especially because we live in the South, you and me, we interact with church folks all the time. We interact with people who grew up in church or who know some about Jesus, perhaps even read the Bible cover to cover. They might give money in an offering plate or say grace before lunch today. But man, these are folks that are just part of a crowd. They’re not really good soil. When you push on them and their preferences get challenged, you see what’s really the Lord of their life, and it’s usually them, not Jesus. We’ve all interacted with people who may not know very much about the Bible. Reading may not be a strong suit, but man, they’re taking notes right now. They want to apply what they’re hearing. And despite despite what they do or do not know about the Bible, man, do you look at them? They’re a sponge for what God has for them. And they’re just constantly trying to give others what God is giving them.

That’s what Jesus is pointing at. He’s saying, “Hey, to be part of my kingdom, you don’t have to know all the stuff. You don’t have to read all the books. You don’t have to live this perfectly morally sanitized life to be part of my kingdom. What you need is a heart that’s ready to receive my message. A heart that is ready to become a doer, not just a hearer.

If there’s anything you take away from the message this morning, I want it to be this. A ready heart produces a rich harvest. Not a smart heart, not a religious heart, not a Christianized heart, just a ready one.

I think because of the events of this past week, our spiritual, social kind of consciousness as a nation has been reawakened. There are folks in churches all across our country that are looking for a good word. If that is you this morning, man, thank you so much for coming. I’m so so grateful you’re here. My encouragement to you to be ready for what God has for you.

Things splash us in the face and wake us up all the time. It’s a question of are you going to apply? Are you just a hearer or do you are you ready to become a doer? You see, the primary difference between the good soil and the other three is a readiness for the seed, a readiness for God’s word, a prior commitment to do what God says no matter what He says.

Anyone can produce a rich harvest for God. Do you want to help somebody make a statement of going from death to life? Do you want to help somebody learn how to read their Bible? Do you want to help somebody grow in their love for Jesus? You don’t have to go to seminary. You don’t have to know all this stuff. You don’t have to go to YouTube University and get all the arguments. All you have to do is to be ready for what God has for you and to give it to somebody else.

The question to this this morning is, do you want to live a fruitful life for God? Do you want that? I trust you do. Why else would you be here? Why else would we gather to sing songs? Why else would we voluntarily give our money in plates? Why else would we set aside time on Sunday morning where we could be anywhere else? I trust you are here this morning because you want your life to matter. You want to become a kinder person. You want to become a more self-controlled and a more Christ-honoring person. You want your home to be more ordered and more peaceful and warmer and more loving. You don’t want your life to be angrier. You don’t want your life to be darker. You don’t want your life to be hopeless or despairing. You want the good stuff. You want a fruitful life.

The way there is by embracing Jesus. You see, Jesus Christ is the most satisfying thing I could ever offer you. You have been created for an eternal life of peace and joy and harmony with God and others that you understand you don’t have in this life to the full. You may have given yourself to Jesus years ago, but you still experience sin and its personal effects on a daily basis. You wake up in the morning and your back aches. Hello. You go to bed at night and you question all the decisions and the statements and the words of the day. You turn on the news and you see the destruction of an assassin with a rifle. You see the abuses of people groups around the world. You see the anger and the jealousy that lives in your heart. And you’re wondering how how can this be? Is this the best there is? And my answer this morning is a resounding no.

You see, Jesus Christ came not to condemn you. No, He did not come to lay a bunch of rules on you that you can never get out from under. He is not like this judge that’s just ready to just bang his gavel at the moment he can, the moment you sin against Him. What Jesus is like is a good shepherd offering you the way to life. Jesus Himself said that I am the way and the truth and the life. I have come to show you how you can live. I have come to give my life for yours because God so loved you, He would send me to die a death that you deserve to die because you can’t live the life you’re supposed to. Because the thing you know that you wrestle with is a living entity inside of you called sin. And no matter how good you try to live, no matter how much church you try to attend, no matter how self-controlled you just try to grit and grin and bear it and become, you know, you can’t.

Anybody in the room able to recognize this? Anybody in the room able to recognize the dark voices in your mind that tell you to do destructive things to you and to others around you? Anybody in the room able to recognize that if this is all there is, then why am I here at church on a Sunday? If this is all there is, then man, let’s get on our boats. If this is all there is, then why are we here? But this is not all there is. Which means this is not just social hour for us. It’s not just club for us. This is a gathering that reminds us that one day Jesus will come back. He will come back and He will offer a way or He will usher us into heaven and paradise with Him where we be fully restored. And guess what? I fully believe that. I fully believe that one day Jesus will come back and make all things new. Will you be with me? Will you?

Man, I don’t know where you are coming in this morning spiritually. I don’t know if Jesus is your Savior, if He’s your Lord or what. What I do know is that God loves you. He loves you so much that He sent Jesus Christ to come and die for you so that you would not have to die eternally because of your sin. You would not have to pay the consequence of the sin that you know you commit because Jesus has already paid that on the cross for you this morning. If you have never embraced the grace of God and the hope of the gospel, I invite you and encourage you to tune me out and to do little business with the one who loves you infinitely.

In fact, I want to invite everybody to close their eyes and bow their heads. I’m not going to manipulate you. Nobody else in the room is going to know what you’re about to do. But I want you to just pray and be very seriously real with God. I want to ask you this question. Are you good soil? Have you received the gospel? Is Jesus your Savior? If there’s any doubt in your mind, may you pray this prayer after me. It’s not the words of the prayer that saves you. It is the faith in the words. Jesus, I admit that I am a sinner. I have gone against Your way and I can’t get myself out. I believe that You died for me on the cross and that You are perfect in my place. I confess that You are now my Lord and my Savior and my Master and I want to live for You and You alone. Help me, please.

If you prayed that this morning, welcome. I want to encourage you to tell somebody that you prayed that. For everybody else in the room, man, let’s show ourselves good soil, not by our works, but how we receive God’s word in our lives. You bow your heads everybody and pray with me to close out this time before we sing a final song. Lord God, thank You. I’ve just sought to be faithful to what Your word says. God, I pray that this would be a room full of ready hearts that are ready to produce a rich harvest for You. God, I pray against hard hearts that the gospel would bounce off of. And I pray that You would bind Satan and what he is trying to do and that for every person in this room, they would have a desire for You. God, I pray against shallow hearts, Lord, that might receive what I just said with joy, but have no depth in them, and they’re going to fall away. I pray that You would make us deep. I pray, God, against any thorny hearts and any divided loves, that You would give us one love, one master, one Savior, Jesus Christ. That it would not be sports or success, 401ks, or families that would be our master, but it would be Jesus. I pray that we would be people with ready hearts, good soil to bear fruit for You. I pray that the message of the gospel would get deep into us and that we would love You with everything we’ve got. Please, God, we love You. Thank You for loving us. It’s in Your name we pray. Amen.