Good morning. It’s good to be with you.

Problem with having a lunch right after church is we have to smell it all sermon. So, sorry, I’m only going to go two hours this morning. No, I’m not. Hour and fifty.

Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew chapter 13, this morning, starting in verse 1. Turn there with me.

Matthew writes,

Some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears. Let him hear.

You know, people always say, oh, such and such, she’s a good cook. You’re a good cook. You’re such a good cook. And if you’ve never cooked before, you think, well, it’s just following step by step and just putting ingredients together. It’s a recipe. That’s not true.

Because if you’re not a good cook, you know, you’ve tried it before and you have blown a meal. You did not put those ingredients together. It wasn’t simple. There was nothing wrong with the ingredients, was there? There was something wrong with the way you put them together. In the same way, people say, oh, you know, I have a real green thumb. And you can say, it’s just sticking plants in the ground. There’s nothing to it. Not true. If you’re like me, you have killed many a plant before. There’s more to it. There’s more than just a plant. There’s knowing the soil type. There’s knowing the nutrients that the plant needs. There’s a knowing how to nurture it. There’s a knowing how to nurture a plant. We had planted some bushes out front a while back and bought one of those things, those little blue crystals. It’s got the nutrients that’s supposed to help it grow. And I thought, these don’t work. This is not going to work. So you’re only supposed to put like a little teaspoon on each one. I did like a salt shaker all over those plants. And in a couple days, they were brown. They were brown and so crispy like someone sat them on fire. And I thought, oh, they do work. Okay. They do work. That’s the very thing Jesus is talking to us about this morning. He’s talking to us about the seed of the kingdom, which is to say the seed of the gospel. And that seed is a good seed. And that seed is a powerful seed. But it comes down to this. Is the soil of our heart prepared to receive it? That’s what Jesus is asking us this morning. That’s the question. The seed of the kingdom. Is your heart ready? Is your heart ready to receive it? Has it received it?

Back in verse 1, it says, That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea, and great crowds gathered about Him, so that He got into the boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood on the beach, and He told them many things in parables. We’re forced to deal in Matthew’s gospel with certain things repeatedly. We’ve been in Matthew a while, and certain themes reemerge. Themes like Messiah, you know, the Jewish Messiah. Themes like the kingdom. Themes of repentance. And we have one of those reemerging themes again this morning, and it’s that theme of crowd versus disciple mentality. So Matthew brings these themes back, not because he’s out of things to say, and he’s just, you know, regurgitating. He’s saying them because the Spirit has led them to say them, because we need to learn these very important lessons.

Jesus’ star, if you will, hasn’t burned out. People still want a piece of this Jesus, this great teacher who teaches like no one else, this great miracle worker who’s doing all this stuff. But here’s what we’ve got to grab. You and I will not have one piece of Jesus at all if we come to Him as one of the crowd.

We only have Christ if we come to Him as a disciple. Because what are crowds? Well, crowds are disconnected things. They… They see something from afar. They appreciate something from afar. Or they don’t appreciate something from afar. They’re just a part of a mass. They’re not a part of the thing they’re observing. You probably heard the rock and roll legend, Eddie Van Halen, passed away recently. I was watching some of those old clips back in the 80s, you know, in their heyday. And boy, could they draw a crowd. And those people are screaming and hollering. Why? Because they’re watching Him do something on the guitar they can never dream to do. They can never hope to do. A disciple, though, is a very different mentality. The disciple so observes someone’s life so as to actually take up that way of life. It is to fully embody what it is you’re following so that you become it.

So Jesus teaches a parable. It’s this story that teaches us a real life lesson. How will we hear the story as one of the crowd members or as a disciple?

So He says, A sower, in verse 4, went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path and the birds came and devoured them. So Jesus uses really simple imagery that anyone can relate to. Certainly people in His agrarian society. We don’t live in an agrarian society for the most part. We go to the grocery store. But still we get it. If we’re going to go to Kroger or Publix and buy corn, buy whatever it is you want, somebody somewhere hopefully knows how to reap a harvest. Or you’re not going to be buying anything. So Jesus draws the eye of our mind to consider a farmer out in his land throwing out seed. He’s scattering seed everywhere.

But Jesus says all those seeds that the farmer throws out, they’re not all going to take root and grow. Why? Because there’s something wrong with the seed. No, because not every place is hospitable to the germination and successful growth of a crop. And one of those places that Jesus points out is the pathway. The pathway is where the farmer moves about his farm. It’s on purpose beat down and hard. It has no nutrients and that’s no concern necessarily of the farmer. It’s the pathway. It’s just where he moves. It’s not protected from animals or other people being on it like a crop would be. It’s not a place. It’s not a place where anyone could hope to draw out a harvest. It’s void of nutrients.

What does Jesus mean? What does Jesus mean? Well, he’s good enough to explain himself to his disciples behind the scenes in verse 18 and 19 further down. He says, 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 away, what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. So Jesus gives us, his disciples, this insight into these mysteries of the kingdom. And he says that seed, it’s the word of the kingdom. It’s the gospel. It’s that message Jesus started with. Repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. More fully, as you and I know it, it’s the gospel that God sent his son, born of a woman under the law, to redeem those who were under the law by his perfect life, his bloody death that atones for our sins, and his glorious resurrection over sin and death. And by faith and repentance, we are made new in Christ. So Jesus is this sower. And Jesus is throwing out these seeds. And Jesus, the sower from heaven, he’s looking for a harvest of righteousness in people. But here’s the lesson. Here’s a hard lesson. Not every seed, Jesus throws out for the kingdom, is going to take root and grow.

Jesus is saying it’s not going to grow on the pathway heart. The pathway heart may find the gospel interesting. The pathway heart may find the gospel intriguing. But no more intriguing than a slew of other world religions and mystical teachings. The pathway heart hears, but does not spiritually grasp. The pathway heart hears, but does not spiritually grasp. The pathway heart appreciates, but does not adore. Leon Morris, one commentator I love, he remarks, Augustine, the church father, says, these people are like those who look at the beautiful calligraphy of foreign languages. See how beautiful those characters are strung together. But they do not understand what they’re reading. He goes on to say, they will not understand what they’re hearing, which evidently means that they will have their minds so made up and will be so set in their ways that, When they hear the word of God that challenges them to new thinking and new ways of living, they simply do not understand it. They interpret what they hear in terms of what they have always thought and done. So it will be what they see. There is no shortage to what they see, but there will be no perception. And you know why that is certainly the sad, tragic case? Because Jesus says so. In Jesus giving the parable and explaining the parable, his disciples say, hey, Jesus, how come you always teach in parables? And he says in verse 13, This is why I speak in parables to them, because seeing they don’t see, hearing they don’t hear. They don’t understand. Indeed, they’re fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy. And what does Isaiah say? They’re dull in heart. They’re dull in heart. They have a crowd mentality. They hear and see only what they want to hear and see.

Church, we have to be reminded the heart of man is a callous thing. It is a callous thing. We are not natural citizens of God’s heavenly kingdom. So when the king shows up and says, hey, all y’all, deny your kingdom. Come to my kingdom. Live my way. Think my way. That’s a threat to you. At least it’s irrelevant.

Man is not on a hunt to find God. Man is on a hunt to eradicate him. Look at society. Did you see in last week’s confirmation hearings for Judge Barrett, so many congressmen and women so proudly, so passionately defending the slaughter of unborn children?

Did you see how with great pride they defended the absolute ruin? And perversion of the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman? Do you know about the rampant number of divorces and adulteries in America? Do you know about the persistent problem of sex trafficking in our modern enlightened world? Do you know what public schools look like since we’ve kicked God out? Have you seen the dumpster fires that many of our urban centers have become with murder and crime? We’re not looking for God. So when Jesus says the evil one has come and snatched the seed up, it’s not that Satan is taking from God. As much as it is, Satan is claiming those who already sworn allegiance to him.

In John chapter 3, John says, and this is the judgment, light has come into the world and people, what? Loved the darkness rather than the light because their work, their works were evil. Rejecting God is surrendering to the kingdom of Satan. So what is this first place Jesus says the seed will not grow? It will not grow in those who are servants of the evil one, be it they conscious of that or not. And I think what can you and I do when we hear that? Because when I hear that, I think, surely I’m no better than some hard-hearted sinner. Surely I love my own sin. Surely I don’t have the wherewithal to say yes to God. I think what I do is praise God that he has graciously drawn me to himself and brought me to a place where I have responded in saving faith. All I can do is say, Lord, how is it so that I have been transformed? How is it that you gave me hands to hold something so precious I should never even touch? I do not know. I do not know. We so often sing that song that says, why should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer. I cannot give an answer. Grace leaves me proclaiming the love and mercy of God, but it also leaves me speechless. Jesus said to the disciples as well when they asked that question in 1311, he says, to you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom, but to them it has not been given. I want to say secondly, if you by grace have responded in faith, here’s what you and I need to hear this morning. If we’re in the kingdom, what the enemy cannot claim, he will do his best to spoil and ruin. You know, it may be that you have received Christ and you’ve come by faith and praise the Lord, but you know what the scriptures call us to do, what responsibility lies on us? Guard the good deposit. You and I won’t come to a mature crop in the kingdom if we’re not guarding from the enemy. The enemy does not sleep. He’s looking to stick. He’s looking to kill. He’s looking to kill. That which he cannot possess, he will oppress. That what belongs to the kingdom. So church, yes, be grateful that you’re a saved person, but put your hand to the plow to work and to grow up in your faith. James says, resist the devil. He doesn’t say things just to say things. You know, the Bible doesn’t do that. It means Satan will constantly be trying to destroy you. You must resist the devil. You must resist the devil so that he flees from you.

Does Jesus keep those who are his that they would never be lost? Oh, yes. But it’s just as true, those who are kept do not fail to diligently guard what they’ve been given. Two sides of the same coin. You know, you’ve heard the phrase, rose-colored glasses. He or she always sees through rose-colored glasses, right? And I think a lot of times, it would be nice if we could actually just live with rose-colored glasses. And you know, Satan would be glad for us to live with rose-colored glasses and not see, live with the consciousness of the spiritual warfare, that invisible spiritual warfare that’s going around, that’s happening all the time. Paul says in Ephesians 6, we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, cosmic powers over this present darkness, against spiritual forces. We don’t wrestle against the forces of evil in heavenly places. So what do we do if that battle’s going on? You better put on your armor that you may be able to withstand the evil day and having done all, to stand firm.

You know, the next best thing to Satan, besides a non-believing person, is a very stupid, dull-believing person.

Because when you and I are very dull

and willingly ignorant, we don’t realize Satan is actively trying to wreck your heart. He’s actively trying to draw you away from the faith. He’s actively trying to woo your children into the world. He’s actively trying to wreck our nation. He’s actively trying to wreck your marriage. He doesn’t stop. He doesn’t stop. He wants your heart to be a dry, barren, cracked place where the seed suffers, and you… So it’s not a fairy tale. That’s not old story. That’s present reality for us as Christians. Guard it. Guard it by doing what Jesus did. What did Jesus pray? He said, and deliver us from the evil one. God, I need your power. I’ve got to stay close to you. I’ve got to stay close to the Word, so the power of the Word lives in me. I need the sharpness of God’s Word to constantly, to give me the nutrients I need to grow up, to give me the armor, protection I need against the enemy. I need to pray. I need to use the weapons I have. The old song, Onward, Christian Soldier. You know, we sing it as kids, but it’s so much truth in that. You are a soldier. You are in a fight, a spiritual fight against the enemy.

Charles Spurgeon likened it to a vineyard. You know, if you had a vineyard, you wouldn’t just see a fox eating your grapes, and say, ah, he says, you need to constantly be going on the hunt with Jesus. Jesus, there’s a fox right there. My mare is right there. Jesus, I’m going to do this right there. Jesus, there. Go on the hunt. Go on the hunt. Root out the foxes. Root out Satan, where he tries to wreck your faith.

Jesus shows us a second seed, or a second soil where the seed won’t grow. It doesn’t grow in the enemy’s servants, but secondly, Jesus says, it does not grow in those who are mildly committed to the kingdom. It doesn’t grow in those who are mildly committed to the kingdom. Verse 5, he says, Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away.

Have you ever tried to remove an old tree or an old bush? It’s been there, and it’s overgrown. You want to get rid of it? It’s really hard. It’s really hard because it has an established root system. You know, I’ve done this before. I’ve tied, you know, a big strap to my truck and thought I’m just going to drive away. Snap the cord in half. It’s very hard because that bush knows how to survive. It knows how to stay alive. Sequoias, they have a root system that can span four square acres. Think about that. They’re very well established against harsh weather.

Jesus in verse 20, again, He tells us what He’s really talking about. He says, As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arise on account of the word, immediately he falls, away. So understand, it wasn’t that the soil’s not good. The problem is the soil is sparse. There’s not enough nutrients to supply the need of the seed. In extreme weather, it ruined the progress of this plant, this crop. And I think more accurately, what Jesus is saying is the harsh weather exposed the superficiality of the growth. It wasn’t ever really real. It was never rooted. Jesus says, that’s just like the person. They hear the gospel. Wow, eternal life. Salvation. Man, that’s amazing. Church life. Oh, this is so great. They’re so excited. They’re at every church function. They’re there, man. But what happens? Jesus says, trial comes. Persecution comes. And they say, forget it. It is surface deep. Their commitment to Christ.

The apostle Peter says in 1 Peter chapter 1, In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials. Wow. So that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Christ. It’s a weird thing to say, and it’s only not sick. It’s only not grotesque. If we say it in the framework of Christian theology, okay? Here’s the thing. Hardship is good for us. It’s a hard thing to say. Hardship is good for us. Why? Because hardship in the Christian life exposes if Christ is really in the Christian. You hear me say that? Hardship in the Christian life exposes if Christ is really in the Christian. Trials of its opposition or the enemy or God-approved tests, they expose the motive of why we came to Christ at the first and whether or not we’re going to be with Christ at the last. It’s so important to know what Peter said. I mean, you caught it. He said, suffer with joy. Suffer with joy. The very thing the rocky-hearted person loses when trial comes. Joy is that inexpressible gladness in who God is despite the suffering. Because I know what I have in Christ, what I have in the power of the gospel, it’s so much better than whatever suffering the world could throw my way. There’s no pain that could come my way that the glory and joy to be revealed isn’t worth suffering for. It’s what the rocky heart doesn’t have.

So Christianity, church, I hope I’m not going to wreck your day. Christianity, Christianity, is not the best thing for your happiness.

It’s not remotely the best thing for your happiness. In fact, Christianity is going to ruin your happiness many times over.

You know those Christians in China and Nigeria we’re always praying for? Constantly seeing loved ones slaughtered? Constantly being oppressed by the government? You think they’re happy?

Christians struggling the battle of cancer? Christians watching loved ones battle cancer? You think they’re happy?

Christians who have lost relationship with family and friend because of commitment to the gospel? Is that happiness? That’s not happiness. But oh, how these have something to teach you now about joy. That happiness the world cannot take away because it is hidden with Christ and God.

You know it’s been said so many times before and it’s worth repeating. God is not concerned with our happiness. He is supremely concerned with our holiness. God wants to make us holy because being holy is what growth in the heart is about. Because the more I’m holy it means I’m more like Christ and it means I’m more love Christ which means the more joy I have in what I’ve been given which means I’m more excited and committed to the joy I will have come eternity. So no, God’s not going to hesitate. To put you and I through the fire. He loves us too much to leave us the way we are. We’re too rotten.

He loves us so much He burns us. He burns us to purify us that we may be kept forever.

Church, do you love your King so much that you’ll endure for Him? Is your Christianity about your happiness or about Christ?

Do we live for present happiness or God’s eternal glory?

I’ve been reading through Hosea lately just on my own and there’s just something in Hosea that’s really good and this is unfaithful Israel that God’s talking to in 6-4 and He says, What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love, it’s like a morning cloud. Like the dew that goes early away. It’s there. Oh, but then it’s gone. Let’s be stirred by joy that will be not the hollow happiness the world has to offer now. The first will be last and the last will be first and those who laugh now will mourn later but those who mourn now will laugh forever. I had the privilege of talking to a person I met this week. Someone who deals with extreme physical ailments. Extreme physical ailments. And it’s very, very hard time and we’re really just in a moment of despair. And we had a conversation about this. So often, so often in the Christian life, it doesn’t feel like God loves us. It doesn’t seem like God cares. The reason God does that is to elicit faith from us as to whether or not we’ll believe what we feel or believe what we believe. I want to read you something from a book. It’s called The Bruiserie by Richard Sibbes. He’s an old preacher, theologian. He says, Christ may act the part of an enemy a little while, but it is to make way for His acting mercy in a more seasonable time. He cannot restrain His bowels of mercy long. He seems to wrestle with us as with Jacob, but He supplies us with a hidden strength to prevail at length. Listen to this. Faith pulls off the mask, masks from His face, and sees a loving heart under a contrary appearance.

He first answered the woman of Canaan who was crying after Him, not a word. Then He gave her a denial, and after that He gave her an answer tending to her approach, calling her a dog as being outside the covenant. Yet, she would not be so beaten off, for she considered the end of His coming. As His Father was never near to Him in strength to support Him, and when He was furthest off in the sense of favor and comfort, so Christ is never nearer us in power to uphold us than when He seems to most hide us from His presence.

Jesus on the cross, what was that like? Father. Oh, the feeling of rejection. And I think we feel that. But friends, we feel that that God would draw us deeper to believe and know it is not as it seems. It is as it is. And as it is, God loves us. And every trial and every valley, as difficult as they are, they’re designed and used by God to bring us home. To bring us homeward. So Christ says, look homeward. Because that’s where you’re going. You’re not stuck in the valley forever. Don’t fall away. That’s the whole book of Hebrews. If you’ve never read through the book of Hebrews, read it. You know what Hebrews is saying is, hey, you’ve come this far. You’ve suffered all this. You believe the gospel. Don’t go back. Don’t go back. There’s nothing back there. It’s right here. Suffer on. Suffer on. Consider the great cloud of witnesses. Consider what they’ve suffered. And look at the eternal glory. Look at the better country there and now. Suffer onward. Go homeward. Go to joy. That’s the message.

Third heart. Third heart. The third heart is a heart that the seed cannot grow in because it is committed to multiple kingdoms. It is committed to multiple kingdoms. Verse 7.

Jesus says, Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.

And again, He gives us His meaning in verse 22. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves, it proves unfruitful. This one’s tricky. This one to me is advanced discipleship, if you will. Because the soil is not the issue here. Nothing wrong with the soil. It’s not that there’s not enough soil. The issue here is fatal proximity to a bush, to a bramble bush, a thorn bush that chokes out and kills the seed’s root system.

Again, Leon Morris says, The good seed found, intense competition for the nourishment and the soil, and the thorny plants were too strong. They choked out the new plants by preventing them from getting the nourishment they needed. Jesus reminds us here of what we’ve got to be reminded of so much. You and I attempt to live for two kingdoms. We try to have my now and my then. Can I have the world in Christ too, we wonder. But Jesus says, Go ahead and try it and see how you will be overrun by sin. See how dabbling in sin will kill you. See how weak you really are. But grab this. And this is the part where I said, pay attention here. Jesus did not actually say

that it was explicit sin that was the thorn. That’s not what He said. He said it was the deceitfulness of riches and the cares of the world. Well, we have many cares. You and I, we have kids. Kids that have to have their teeth brushed every night, and dress. And clothing. And they get in trouble. And they’ve got to go to school. And they grow up. And they need this. They need that. They get sick. We have marriages to tend to. Loving our spouses. We have jobs with deadlines and bosses. And confrontational employees. We have bills to pay. We have houses. We have cars. We have friends. We have hobbies. We have political party affiliations. We have a ton of cares in life. We have a ton of cares in life. And those aren’t bad. That are sinful things in and of themselves. And then Jesus really lands the whopper. He says the deceitfulness of money. He doesn’t say money is evil. He says the deceitfulness of riches kills a person. So here’s what Jesus is not doing. He’s not saying, run away, hide in a cave, be nothing, have nothing, and just get in the fetal position until I come back for you. That’s not what He’s saying. Here’s what Jesus is saying. And this is really important to grab. He’s warning us the good things of life are easily perverted by sinners like us. We’re very good at taking good things and idolizing them and misprioritizing them. It’s not that we shouldn’t have children. It’s not that we shouldn’t have money. It’s not that we shouldn’t live in a house. It’s that none of those things, friends, will ever give you the satisfaction, the fulfillment, the eternal life that only Jesus can. So Jesus says, what really has your best affections? What really has your life? You only have so much bandwidth. You don’t have it in you to be committed to two things. We’re not designed to do that. Christ says you spend your whole life being cared about so many good things that needed to be tended to and your life will pass you by and you did not give it to the kingdom. The thing you thought was your pet, God will end up owning you as a pet.

2 Timothy chapter 4.

This is really something to see. He says, for Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica.

Crescens has gone to Galatia. Titus to Dalmatia.

Now, if you’re Demas, what was it that was so important that you deserted Paul and his missionary work? I mean, because Demas had to have seen Paul preach mighty sermons, seen Paul do miracles. I mean, you’re with Paul, the apostle. I mean, you’ve been in the thick of the thickest for the sake of the gospel. Yet, Demas had this secret love the whole time. So much so, he thought it was so important it was worth forsaking Paul. What was it? I don’t know what it was. I assure you it was something petty. Whatever it was, it ended up owning Demas. It choked out. It choked out the seed of the gospel in him.

Just as sin seems to ensure happiness and pleasure, riches seem to ensure security and contentment. And as Americans, we have a lot of that. Even if you’re, you know, consider yourself low on the totem pole. You’re not waking up saying, I don’t know if I’m going to eat today. I don’t know if my children are going to eat this week. I don’t know if I’m going to have a roof over my head tonight. I just don’t know.

Is it wrong to have things? It’s not wrong to have things, but this is advanced discipleship. Jesus is saying, watch out. It’s very dangerous to have a bunch of stuff. It’s very dangerous. Jesus says how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. How difficult. Jesus says your heart, it loves that thorn bush. It gets so close to that thorn bush and that thorn bush overwhelms. It overruns. Charles Spurgeon says we cannot grow thorn and corn at the same time. The attempt is fatal to a harvest for Jesus.

You know why they tell you not to text and drive? Because you can’t do it well.

People end up dying. Right? And friend, the application is no different here. We try to remain on the pathway for Christ and we think that I can look away. I can do other things. And man, we get choked out by the world. We get choked out with not bad things, but we get choked out with good things.

So if you care, if you desire to press on to advanced discipleship, it leaves you with this hard work. Hard work of getting in the field of your own heart and going around and saying, ah, there’s a bramble bush. Ah, there’s a thorn patch right there. Ah, right there. You’ve got to take a fine tooth comb and you’ve got to go through every context of your life and say, Lord, where am I obsessed with the good things? Lord, where am I obsessed with the good things? Lord, my job, sure, it’s a job and work’s good and work glorifies you. But Lord, I’ve found my status in my job. I think work makes me who I am. Lord, I’m too committed to making money. I think the next dollar will be enough.

Lord, I’m too obsessed with my kids. You can do that. I worry about them too much. Or I just am so, I’m just, I’m vicariously living through them. I just, I just so love my kids. I’m not even living my own life. People do that.

Time. Stuff. Money. Take the fine tooth comb of God’s Word with the power of the Spirit and say, Lord, rip out the bramble bush before it kills me. Where are the sacrifices I need to make to get back to you and you alone?

One more, one more heart. One more heart.

Jesus says in verse 8, Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears,

let him hear. Down in verse 23, he says, As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the Word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case, a hundredfold, in another sixty, in another thirty. So we’re back to, to crowd disciple, crowd disciple, crowd disciple. I’m in the crowd. I’m going to hear what I want to hear out of Christ. I’m going to think I love it, then find out I’m not that committed.

Or I’m going to try to, you know, play both hands. Jesus, can I have you? And Jesus said, These fields will produce nothing. But Jesus says, Then there’s this last one, this good soil. It’s the soil of a disciple’s heart. A heart that says, Lord, here I am. Have your whole way with me. Make me something new. And as you make me something new, Lord, would you use me to bear a hundredfold for your kingdom? Lord, would you use me to bear sixty? Lord, could it even be said you use me to bear thirty for you? God, could you just have me and use me and just do it your way? Here’s my heart. Here’s my heart. Jesus says, If you have the ear to hear that, hear it. The one who understands it doesn’t mean they get it. It means they give their life to it. Jesus calls us, Understand it.

Let your heart be the heart of good soil. Pray that God makes your heart the heart of soil, the heart of a disciple. That, friends, through all trial, through all loss, we would bear fruit for the kingdom, eternally be in the kingdom, have the joy of the kingdom, truly be followers of Christ, because the seed of the kingdom always thrives in Jesus’ followers. Always. It always thrives in Jesus’ followers. So you and I can act on Jesus’ words that if we come to Him and surrender, He will own us as His own. And we can also know this, He does not lose those who are His. He keeps them to the very end. So let us go, forsaking all else, believing that when we surrender, we will be saved. Jesus will make us into His image and He will not lose us. He will not lose us. The seed of the kingdom will grow life in us and it will go outward and it will go on forever.

Let’s pray.

Father, how great is Your grace.

How greatly You are to be praised and how small words are to You.

Try to describe the undeserved care of Your love and Your grace in Your Son.

God, our hearts are foul places so often. We obsess over things. We obsess over stuff. We easily bail when You bring trial into our way. We try to have everything, Lord. Oh God, but You would remind us in this moment that You have not called us to have everything. You’ve called us to have You. And You are enough, Lord.

So have us, God. Have us. Keep us. Grow us. Nurture us. Guard us. Keep us from the enemy, from the flesh, from the world. Bear fruit in us, Lord, that we could be used for Your kingdom. I pray that for each of us, individually, but Lord, I pray that for us bound together as a church family here at Providence, Lord. Use us. Bear much fruit through us, Lord. Let it all be for Your glory.