Speaker 1: God bless you. You may be seated. If you have a Bible, turn to the Gospel of Luke chapter 8.
Speaker 1: The title of this message is, what kind of dirt are you?
Speaker 1: Just a bunch of dirt bags. Don't you know? Right? The man, at his very best, it is just a couple handfuls of dust.
Speaker 1: Just a couple handfuls of dust. I know I used to.
Speaker 1: work at a cemetery and we would go get the cremations to bury. But first we would look through
Speaker 1: to see if there was any chunks of gold or just kidding. Well, not really. But it was in a clear plastic
Speaker 1: bag and I would look at it and just think, wow, we ain't much, are we? And so that's kind of what this
Speaker 1: is about. And so if you have your Bible, we're going to read the first 15 verses of the 8th chapter
Speaker 1: of the gospel of Luke. Read with me, it says, now it came to past afterward that he went through
Speaker 1: every city and village preaching and bringing glad tidings of the kingdom of God. And the 12 were
Speaker 1: with them and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities. Mary called
Speaker 1: Magdalene and out of home had... Well,
Speaker 1: I turn two pages there, sorry.
Speaker 1: Come seven demons, and Joanna, the wife of Chusa, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others
Speaker 1: who provided for him of their substance.
Speaker 1: And when a great multitude had gathered and they had come to him from every city, he spoke a parable.
Speaker 1: A sower went out to sow his seed, and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trampled.
Speaker 1: down and the birds of the air devoured it. Some fell on rock. And as soon as it sprang up,
Speaker 1: it withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up with it
Speaker 1: and choked it. But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.
Speaker 1: And when he had said these things, he cried, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Speaker 1: Then his disciples ask him saying, what does this parable mean? And he said, to you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. But to the rest it is given in parables that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. Now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear. And then the devil comes and takes away the word out of the hearts lest they should believe and be saved. But the
Speaker 1: ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no root
Speaker 1: who believe for a while, and in times of temptation, fall away. Now, the ones that fell among
Speaker 1: thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and
Speaker 1: pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. But the ones that fell on the good ground
Speaker 1: are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
Speaker 1: Shall we pray?
Speaker 1: Lord, we're so feeble in our understanding of your truth and really who and what you are.
Speaker 1: And God, I just pray that you would use your word to quicken our hearts, Lord, that we would truly be made alive.
Speaker 1: in our spirits, Lord, as we look at the truths found in this incredible parable that Jesus
Speaker 1: shares and also gives his own commentary on.
Speaker 1: It's so powerful, Lord.
Speaker 1: May we be changed by it as we look at it in Jesus' holy name.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 1: So he starts off there.
Speaker 1: You know, this is coming off the heels of the woman that, uh,
Speaker 1: that Jesus had told her in that last part of chapter seven,
Speaker 1: Your faith has made you well, go in peace.
Speaker 1: This woman who was of questionable character,
Speaker 1: and she receives the message of good news,
Speaker 1: the gospel wholeheartedly,
Speaker 1: and expresses her love for the Lord,
Speaker 1: much like that last song we just sang.
Speaker 1: she bowed before him and wiped his feet with her tears and really showed a genuine,
Speaker 1: noble humility.
Speaker 1: And now it starts that Jesus, he doesn't stop, but he's gaining momentum.
Speaker 1: And it came to pass afterwards that he went through every city and village preaching and
Speaker 1: bringing glad tidings of the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: Who doesn't want to hear about the kingdom of God?
Speaker 1: seriously, especially when you begin to look at the kingdoms of this world and the control that
Speaker 1: they're under and the world system that the Bible says that we actually fight against
Speaker 1: in our spirits, that we have this battle with the flesh, the world, and the devil.
Speaker 1: And it's all real. And so these messages that Jesus is bringing,
Speaker 1: to these cities, you would think that many would come, and it appears that many did.
Speaker 1: And he's sharing this good news.
Speaker 1: It's good news that we can be saved.
Speaker 1: Because I just shake my head every day that I'm alive thinking, how in the world,
Speaker 1: Lord, could you save somebody like me?
Speaker 1: And yet, he's so willing.
Speaker 1: He's so willing to pull us out of the just fire that we deserved.
Speaker 1: and that just judgment, taking it upon himself as the scripture tells us.
Speaker 1: And so he's bringing these glad tidings of the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: And he had an entourage, Jesus did.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: The word preacher actually here is he's preaching me.
Speaker 1: It means literally to evangelize, to convert souls.
Speaker 1: And so this,
Speaker 1: entourage with Jesus is going about setting the stage as he gets ready to share this incredible
Speaker 1: parable. Some believe actually one of the most difficult ones, but us country folk from Idaho,
Speaker 1: we think we get it, right? A sewer went out to sow? I mean, who doesn't see that? I mean,
Speaker 1: they just smashed the field of grain next to my...
Speaker 1: house and it's all gone except for if you ask my dad them internationals they're just not the right
Speaker 1: trash machine they reseed the ground right with all the the waste that they throw aside
Speaker 1: a real thrash machine is it's red but it's a massy fergus and not an international
Speaker 1: a little bit prejudice i would say
Speaker 1: but but he has this entourage with him he has the the 12 that says are with him and then certain
Speaker 1: women praise god for you girls jesus had a bunch of girls around him that's because without
Speaker 1: girls nothing gets done and he names three of them it sounds like there's there's many right but he
Speaker 1: he names Mary Magdalene. These are people who had been impacted by this message that he's been sharing by the gospel.
Speaker 1: Does the gospel change your life? Can I just ask you and just do maybe a little heart searching?
Speaker 1: Has the gospel changed your life? That fact that Christ came into the world to save sinners, right according to the scriptures,
Speaker 1: that he was crucified and shed his blood for our sins and died.
Speaker 1: according to the scriptures that he was stuck in the ground, right,
Speaker 1: and rose up out of the grave three days later to live forever more.
Speaker 1: And for whoever puts their faith and trust in him will experience that same eternal life.
Speaker 1: That is good news.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: That's good stuff, Maynard, like the old Maltolmail commercial.
Speaker 1: Good stuff, Maynard.
Speaker 1: does the body good, it does the soul good to hear this gospel and to hear it consistently.
Speaker 1: I'm convinced that's why we have church every Sunday.
Speaker 1: So we can just kind of rehash it.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: Some has said church is just a holy huddle to remind everybody what the play is.
Speaker 1: Right, it's the gospel.
Speaker 1: It's nothing new.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: where every message kind of heads the same direction.
Speaker 1: Hopefully it challenges us to go deeper with the Lord.
Speaker 1: But he mentions these gals, and especially Mary Magdalene,
Speaker 1: where she had seven demons.
Speaker 1: Now, I don't know, personally,
Speaker 1: I haven't had knowingly comforted.
Speaker 1: with demon-possessed people.
Speaker 1: I have been around a demon-possessed person,
Speaker 1: and that was in a Sunday school class at a church.
Speaker 1: And the dude was demon-possessed.
Speaker 1: And it was obvious
Speaker 1: because he was quoting scripture,
Speaker 1: but he was doing it so antagonistically
Speaker 1: towards the guy that was teaching the class,
Speaker 1: and he was actually, he was a native from Alaska,
Speaker 1: and he said he recognized the spirit immediately because he'd kind of been off into that
Speaker 1: being a native Eskimo in some of their ritualistic things and he recognized.
Speaker 1: But the way this guy was, and he had people with him, and I don't know if they had prayed for him
Speaker 1: to be delivered from this or what, but he was there, and it was very obvious that there was
Speaker 1: something not right about this guy.
Speaker 1: And it kind of made all the hair on your body stand on in when he spoke.
Speaker 1: But imagine seven demons in this woman.
Speaker 1: How did she get there?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: How did she let her defenses down to be possessed by seven demons?
Speaker 1: And yet it's Mary the one that the Lord chose to reveal himself to after the resurrection.
Speaker 1: She's the one, was the first one, able to see him.
Speaker 1: and go and tell the apostles.
Speaker 1: And so these, though the women weren't named apostles,
Speaker 1: they were disciples, and they were very impactful.
Speaker 1: And I know because I have had women in my life that know Jesus
Speaker 1: that have impacted me greatly.
Speaker 1: So ladies, that's just an encouragement.
Speaker 1: Walk with Jesus.
Speaker 1: We see the apostle Paul.
Speaker 1: He names almost 20 women that helped him in men.
Speaker 1: ministry and that help. Their women are picture-esque of the Holy Spirit, right? They're
Speaker 1: picturesque of the Holy Spirit, kind of behind the scenes. It's been rightly said,
Speaker 1: behind every good man is a good woman. There's a lot of truth to that. But in the
Speaker 1: scripture, in Genesis, he will make unto, for the man, a help.
Speaker 1: or helper.
Speaker 1: It's the same thing used for the woman of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, the helper.
Speaker 1: He'll come along.
Speaker 1: He's kind of behind the scenes, but it's where all the power is.
Speaker 1: My wife's got all the power.
Speaker 1: And so this entourage, male and female, following the Lord Jesus.
Speaker 1: And so Luke actually mentions women in his gospel.
Speaker 1: more so than the others.
Speaker 1: And he was the first women's libber.
Speaker 1: Just kidding.
Speaker 1: But he recognized, obviously, being a Gentile,
Speaker 1: the role that the gals had.
Speaker 1: And these women were fulfilling 1st Peter chapter 4, verse 10,
Speaker 1: where it says,
Speaker 1: and as each one has received a gift,
Speaker 1: minister to one another as good stewards
Speaker 1: of the manifold grace of God.
Speaker 1: The fact is, is they were sold out for Jesus,
Speaker 1: these apostles and these gals.
Speaker 1: And so then he shares his parable here,
Speaker 1: very straightforward and simple,
Speaker 1: and when the great multitude had gathered together,
Speaker 1: no doubt seeing this entourage,
Speaker 1: hearing of the great deeds that Jesus has done,
Speaker 1: all this crowd began to gather around, and he says a sower went out to sow seed.
Speaker 1: And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air
Speaker 1: devoured it, and some fell on the rocks, and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because
Speaker 1: it lacked moisture, and some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it,
Speaker 1: but others fell on good ground and sprang up and yielded a crop a hundredfold.
Speaker 1: And when he had said these things, he puts an exclamation point.
Speaker 1: on it. He says, he who has ear is to hear, let him hear. Listen. Listen to what the word of God is saying.
Speaker 1: It's just not talking about farming. But we see all these things, right? I see it right next door.
Speaker 1: In the spring, when they sowed that ground with barley, there was some out on the pavement.
Speaker 1: What's it going to do? It's going to sit there and get crushed and not produce anything.
Speaker 1: right and the birds of the air sure enough come and chip away and there's there's a place by the ditch
Speaker 1: right there by my place it's all it's that's where they put all the rocks that they pulled out of the
Speaker 1: field this and the seed falls on the rock doesn't do much oh if there's a little dirt it might
Speaker 1: start but that's it and then and then where the where the thistle and stuff is on the edge of the
Speaker 1: field. Seed falls there too, but the heads are about that big. Doesn't do much because the
Speaker 1: weeds around it takes all the nutrients. But then the stuff out in the lands where the flood
Speaker 1: irrigation happens, holy cow, it's rich and it's thick and it's abundant. But he's, but he's
Speaker 1: talking more than about farming. He's provoking. He's not only provoking those who believe in him,
Speaker 1: but he's provoking those who don't, right? Because the disciples come to him, they say,
Speaker 1: hey, hey, Jesus, what is this parable me? I mean, those guys grew up in an agrarian society,
Speaker 1: an ag world.
Speaker 1: But maybe his his zeal about sharing this kind of provoke them thinking,
Speaker 1: he's trying to say something else.
Speaker 1: Now a parable, para, it means to come alongside, right?
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit is called the paraclete.
Speaker 1: He comes alongside and helps us, right?
Speaker 1: But a parable is a story, a physical story cast alongside a spirit.
Speaker 1: spiritual truth. That's a parable. And so they're going, wow, I think, I think we hear what you're
Speaker 1: saying, but what are you really saying? You ever get that when you read the word? Now, Lord,
Speaker 1: this is face value, but I think there's something deeper here. That's what's powerful about God's
Speaker 1: word. You know, just sharing that stuff here a couple weeks ago about about every 49th letter in the
Speaker 1: you know, just the whole genealogy of David there in Genesis chapter 38, powerful stuff.
Speaker 1: But it does say more.
Speaker 1: Because how many of you tell me, have you read through the Bible, right, from Genesis to
Speaker 1: Revelation?
Speaker 1: And then you do it again.
Speaker 1: And how many times will the same passage of scripture,
Speaker 1: jump out and put something in your heart that has never been there before.
Speaker 1: You've never seen it that way before.
Speaker 1: How is that possible?
Speaker 1: It's because it's the eternal word of God.
Speaker 1: It should be provoking us to live this abundant life that he's actually called us to in the here and now.
Speaker 1: So what does this mean?
Speaker 1: and but it's the heart that the Lord is concerned with here.
Speaker 1: And so he explains in verse 11.
Speaker 1: Well, first he explains why he told the parable.
Speaker 1: This is what it means, he says.
Speaker 1: He said, listen, guys,
Speaker 1: this has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is not given in parables.
Speaker 1: That seeing they may not see and hearing they may not hear.
Speaker 1: So they were kind of, the apostles were kind of getting it.
Speaker 1: Maybe some other people weren't getting it.
Speaker 1: So that tells us that Jesus shared parables, right?
Speaker 1: Sometimes a parable was given to show truth and sometimes the parable was given to hide truth.
Speaker 1: Really? Yeah. Because the thing about Jesus is he knows who's going to receive truth and who's not.
Speaker 1: Who's going to hear truth and harden their heart and say, no way. I don't want nothing to do with it.
Speaker 1: You've been around people like that? I was around some people like that just yesterday.
Speaker 1: I could tell just by their body language. They don't want anything to do with the truth.
Speaker 1: Why? It's because it's going to convict them.
Speaker 1: right? It's going to point a big finger at him saying, you're not right with God.
Speaker 1: And you need to get right with God. And a lot of people don't want to get right with God
Speaker 1: because it simply cramps their style. And it's almost like it's a divine judgment. Jesus
Speaker 1: shares this parable to keep people at bay because he knows the ones that will come to him.
Speaker 1: because if you really want to know the truth, you will.
Speaker 1: If you really want to know the truth, you'll know it.
Speaker 1: Jeremiah 2913 says,
Speaker 1: And you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Speaker 1: And John, the apostle, tells us the same thing in his
Speaker 1: his gospel, the truths will make you free, but you got to seek it.
Speaker 1: It says, it's been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom.
Speaker 1: Guys, listen, we don't get it.
Speaker 1: God has to reveal it to us.
Speaker 1: That's what the Bible says, that nobody can say that Jesus is Lord,
Speaker 1: but by the Spirit of God.
Speaker 1: Isn't that amazing?
Speaker 1: Why would God allow us to know him and come to him?
Speaker 1: Because he's good and he's merciful and he's gracious.
Speaker 1: Not because you and I are smart.
Speaker 1: I think we've all proved that.
Speaker 1: Dumber than a post, that'd be me.
Speaker 1: And yet I came to this realization
Speaker 1: at a fairly young age,
Speaker 1: that Jesus is the way,
Speaker 1: though I didn't live that way,
Speaker 1: until I was 23.
Speaker 1: But so he says, okay, I'll give you an interpretation.
Speaker 1: Now, the parable is this, right?
Speaker 1: He explains it very well.
Speaker 1: The seed is the word of God.
Speaker 1: Now, Bible commentators
Speaker 1: this the parable of the sower. Many believe it should be called the parable of the soil.
Speaker 1: Because that's really, the word of God never changes, right? Am I right there? That's true, right?
Speaker 1: It doesn't change. But the soil, it appears that the soil can change. And so he says the seed is the
Speaker 1: word of God. And those by the wayside are the ones who hear, then the devil comes and takes away
Speaker 1: the word out of their hearts lest they should believe and be saved. Right? That seed that falls by
Speaker 1: the wayside there. It seems to be a combination of hardness of heart and demonic satanic
Speaker 1: influence.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: It's a hardness of heart, coupled with satanic influence.
Speaker 1: And a lot of people who harden their heart, obviously, they've been walking with
Speaker 1: Satan for some time.
Speaker 1: And people just get hardened in their way of thinking, right?
Speaker 1: I watched a little interview with Bill Maher and Charlie Kirk.
Speaker 1: And Marr was chastised.
Speaker 1: Kirk for his belief in God.
Speaker 1: Now, Charlie's a pretty sharp cookie.
Speaker 1: I think he's a little on the spectrum, Charlie is.
Speaker 1: But it's bent towards brilliance.
Speaker 1: He's a pretty brilliant individual.
Speaker 1: And he was telling Marr about the intricacies of creation and our universe.
Speaker 1: And the fact that life can be on this planet,
Speaker 1: It's miraculous, right?
Speaker 1: And Marr wasn't getting it.
Speaker 1: And then Marr starts talking about goodness.
Speaker 1: What are you an atheist doing talking about goodness?
Speaker 1: Because we know that all goodness comes from God.
Speaker 1: How can there be any goodness?
Speaker 1: And goodness according to who?
Speaker 1: You have no reference point for goodness unless there's a goodness giver.
Speaker 1: And so those are the people by the wayside.
Speaker 1: It just kind of bounces off, right?
Speaker 1: And the first bird that comes by scoops it up.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting that they come home to roost.
Speaker 1: Kind of like that scripture about Jesus talking about the house being cleaned.
Speaker 1: You've heard that, right, that story that he tells about a man who sweeps it and cleans
Speaker 1: house. But if he doesn't fill it with good things, speaking of the Holy Spirit, right,
Speaker 1: then seven demons more wicked than the one that was driven out, come back and take up residency
Speaker 1: in his heart. That kind of gives self-reformation kind of a kick in the hyeney.
Speaker 1: You can't reform yourself. It has to be somebody much bigger than you that reforms you.
Speaker 1: And his name's Jesus, by the way.
Speaker 1: Warren Wiersby says,
Speaker 1: The wayside was the path that ran through the common field
Speaker 1: separating the plots
Speaker 1: and the foot traffic hardened the soil.
Speaker 1: Whatever goes into the ear or eye,
Speaker 1: would you listen to this folks, please,
Speaker 1: especially young people?
Speaker 1: Whatever goes into the ear or I finally enters the heart.
Speaker 1: So be careful who is allowed to walk on your heart.
Speaker 1: Satan seems to dance on the hardened heart.
Speaker 1: The Lord in his word warns against hardening our heart.
Speaker 1: Hebrews 4.7, today, and it may be today that you hear the Lord's voice,
Speaker 1: do not harden your heart.
Speaker 1: It's like, God, that's our part that God, that's our part,
Speaker 1: gives us. God leaves us to a hard heart or a humbling of heart. And the decision is yours.
Speaker 1: He's a gentleman. He's not going to kick down the door of your heart and say, all right, let me in.
Speaker 1: Little pig, little pig. That's what my two-year-old grandson does when his mother's in the bathroom.
Speaker 1: He goes up and he knocks on the door. Little pig, little pig, let me in. I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: Wow, we need to lay hands on this kid.
Speaker 1: But the Lord wants us to humble ourselves, not to harden ourselves.
Speaker 1: Verse 13 is another soil.
Speaker 1: It says, but the one on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy.
Speaker 1: And these have no root who believe for a while and in time.
Speaker 1: of temptation fall away. You've seen people like that. Man, they're coming church, are packing their
Speaker 1: Bible. They're excited. And things start going haywire. They're like, I'm out. I tried this Jesus
Speaker 1: thing. It don't work. I've seen people like that. You tried this Jesus thing and it don't work?
Speaker 1: What does that mean? Just being a fair weather believer?
Speaker 1: but they get swallowed up by the tough things in life.
Speaker 1: Some will say you can lose your salvation.
Speaker 1: I don't think so.
Speaker 1: Are these people true believers?
Speaker 1: Or do they just have some kind of an emotional experience when they hear the truth of God's word?
Speaker 1: because obviously it provokes a decision, right?
Speaker 1: Jesus himself provokes a decision.
Speaker 1: You have to decide.
Speaker 1: You can't be neutral.
Speaker 1: To not be for him is to be against him.
Speaker 1: He tells us that.
Speaker 1: So choose what side you're on.
Speaker 1: Joshua said it way back when.
Speaker 1: Choose this day who you were served.
Speaker 1: But as for me in my house, we will serve the Lord.
Speaker 1: But people who are truly safe.
Speaker 1: they're going to be there in the end.
Speaker 1: Now, I've seen people backslide and go awry for a time.
Speaker 1: But praise God, they know whose butter's their bread,
Speaker 1: and they come back and running back.
Speaker 1: I know I did, being a little heaving,
Speaker 1: kind of had that foot in both worlds, you know,
Speaker 1: one on this side of the fence and one on this side.
Speaker 1: And like Pastor Gordon says,
Speaker 1: the only thing you get when you got one on each side of the fence is a sore crotch.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've got enough Lord Jesus in you
Speaker 1: and knowledge that you can't be comfortable over here being sinful
Speaker 1: and you got enough sinful stuff bearing down on you
Speaker 1: and guilt riding you to be at church.
Speaker 1: So you're just miserable.
Speaker 1: But if people,
Speaker 1: when they truly get saved, they're going to be there in the end. They're going to make it.
Speaker 1: They really are. They're going to make it.
Speaker 1: Because Jesus tells us in John chapter 20, no one will snatch you out of my hand.
Speaker 1: Nobody is going to snatch you out of my hand. What does that mean? He's nobody.
Speaker 1: Not even you if you're truly saved. First John tells us, right, in two, chapter two, verse 19,
Speaker 1: they went out from us, but they were never of us.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like this, right?
Speaker 1: If you have it, you never lose it.
Speaker 1: If you lose it, you never had it.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: If you have it, you never lose it.
Speaker 1: If you lose it, you never had it.
Speaker 1: So time will tell.
Speaker 1: The judgment of the sheep and the goats.
Speaker 1: I think many that have named the name of Jesus
Speaker 1: may find their selves in a confrontation with the Lord saying,
Speaker 1: depart from me, you workers of iniquity, I never knew you.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you, but that sense chills up and down my spine.
Speaker 1: Because I know that can be me.
Speaker 1: Many people, many people have emotional responses to the gospel.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: Because it just provokes that response.
Speaker 1: I've seen people just get giddy when they hear the gospel message going,
Speaker 1: that is so cool.
Speaker 1: But their response is emotional to the gospel, but not to salvation.
Speaker 1: R. C. Sproles says, we're not justified by a profession of faith, but by a possession of
Speaker 1: genuine faith. That's how you're saved. A possession of genuine faith. Because genuine faith
Speaker 1: turns your life upside down and changes everything about us. When you
Speaker 1: genuinely come to faith in Christ, it changes you.
Speaker 1: Now, some, it takes a long time.
Speaker 1: It changes over time.
Speaker 1: There's some religious sects that say,
Speaker 1: you must know the day and the hour when you got saved,
Speaker 1: when you were converted.
Speaker 1: And I used to be in that camp,
Speaker 1: But recently, I've kind of, I'm not as stuck as I used to be.
Speaker 1: The older I get, the more I say I don't know.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: But a great example of this is Billy Graham.
Speaker 1: So Billy Graham has his baseball uniform on, and somebody said it was on a dare.
Speaker 1: He was on his way home, and Mordecai Hamm, an evangelist there in North Carolina,
Speaker 1: Carolina was having a little revival meeting. Billy Graham went in and went forward and got
Speaker 1: saved. And he knew the day, the hour, you know, the month, all, everything, the year he got
Speaker 1: saved. He could nail it down. But his wife, Ruth, she's Presbyterian.
Speaker 1: Got any Presbyterians in the house? Right? She, you know, did, I don't know what all they do,
Speaker 1: if they do confirmation like the Lutherans do or what. She had done all this stuff. But she, there's
Speaker 1: a five-year period in her life as the Lord was moving and shaping and changing the way she thought.
Speaker 1: But Ruth Graham was a dynamic believer in the Lord Jesus. I mean dynamic. Maybe more so than her husband even.
Speaker 1: So it's not a profession necessarily of faith, but a possession of genuine faith,
Speaker 1: because it turned your life upside down.
Speaker 1: It did mine.
Speaker 1: I was 23 when I finally surrendered my life to Jesus.
Speaker 1: I had asked him into my heart when I was younger.
Speaker 1: Was I saved then?
Speaker 1: Possibly.
Speaker 1: I sure didn't act like it.
Speaker 1: It was nip and tuck, you know.
Speaker 1: You guys know what nip and tuck means.
Speaker 1: That's when dogs chasing you and nipping.
Speaker 1: it, you're hiding it, you're tucking it out of his way.
Speaker 1: It was maybe the hounds of hell.
Speaker 1: But at 23, I strode my hands in the air and I surrendered to Jesus.
Speaker 1: I quit having sex with my girlfriend.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: I quit saying the Lord's naming vain.
Speaker 1: I quit getting drunk.
Speaker 1: I quit using the F word.
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 1: I started quitting all these things.
Speaker 1: things. I quit chewing tobacco. And I mean, it was just starting to slough off. It's like I didn't
Speaker 1: want to do that anymore. I was, I was truly changed, right? All that stuff started going behind me.
Speaker 1: And I had this passion to, to know Jesus. And that passion led me to go into the ministry.
Speaker 1: People said, what was your training? I said, my training was all learning what not to do.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 1: I got that figured out pretty quick.
Speaker 1: I didn't go to cemetery.
Speaker 1: I mean seminary.
Speaker 1: But when times of temptation comes, they throw in the towel.
Speaker 1: I'm out of here.
Speaker 1: Jesus, yeah, right.
Speaker 1: The deeper you get in your walk, though, you realize, oh, no, that's part of it.
Speaker 1: The hard things are part of it.
Speaker 1: That's how you grow, right?
Speaker 1: Verse 14 is another soil, the third soil.
Speaker 1: It says, now the wants that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.
Speaker 1: I'd been in that place getting bogged down in the weeds.
Speaker 1: And that's right, you don't grow there.
Speaker 1: For about a year, I kind of backslid a little bit,
Speaker 1: and it was just like being one of these choked out.
Speaker 1: Notice it's the cares.
Speaker 1: Cares of what?
Speaker 1: Cares of this life.
Speaker 1: What do you care about this life?
Speaker 1: Oh, got to make money.
Speaker 1: right well that's the next one
Speaker 1: riches right
Speaker 1: you care about making money
Speaker 1: in fact
Speaker 1: the whole world is like that because
Speaker 1: when Jesus has the encounter with the
Speaker 1: rich young ruler
Speaker 1: the apostles come to him
Speaker 1: and Jesus said hey it's harder for a rich man to get to heaven
Speaker 1: than the camel to go through the eye of a needle
Speaker 1: and the apostles
Speaker 1: go who can be saved then
Speaker 1: right who can be saved
Speaker 1: because who doesn't chase after this?
Speaker 1: In the world, in the flesh, in your selfishness, yes, that's exactly what you chase after.
Speaker 1: And so you get saved, you come to a real conversion point in your life,
Speaker 1: then that becomes a battle, right?
Speaker 1: That becomes a fight your whole life, especially in America.
Speaker 1: Because it's too easy in this country to go get it.
Speaker 1: You can go get it.
Speaker 1: I like what my friend Louis Dowdy said,
Speaker 1: making money ain't a problem hanging on to it is.
Speaker 1: It has its place, right?
Speaker 1: That's why the Bible gives us an opportunity to give what we make.
Speaker 1: Because we live like this.
Speaker 1: Cares of this life.
Speaker 1: One version says the deceitfulness of riches.
Speaker 1: It's deceitful.
Speaker 1: The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
Speaker 1: Notice it's not money, it's the love of it.
Speaker 1: And so we have to keep that in check.
Speaker 1: The only way you're going to keep that in check, folks,
Speaker 1: is having a really tight walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1: That's the only way you're going to keep that in check.
Speaker 1: They'll only run rough shot over you your whole life.
Speaker 1: And what pleasures?
Speaker 1: They kind of all go hand in hand here.
Speaker 1: don't they?
Speaker 1: Pleasures.
Speaker 1: Take a life of ease.
Speaker 1: Who doesn't want a life of ease?
Speaker 1: But the Bible guarantees us,
Speaker 1: you're not going to have a life of ease here.
Speaker 1: You're not.
Speaker 1: It's not something that we're to pursue.
Speaker 1: We get to sleep and rest in heaven
Speaker 1: and have a life of ease in heaven.
Speaker 1: But here, it's struggle.
Speaker 1: And God promises,
Speaker 1: is that? It's because we're under the curse. Are you getting choked spiritually with these things?
Speaker 1: Right? You go back to Genesis chapter 3 and God is talking to Adam after they had disobeyed the Lord,
Speaker 1: just like you and I have. And the Lord says to Adam, because you have heeded the voice of your wife,
Speaker 1: oh Lord, help us. Because you have heeded the voice of your wife. There is a time to heed the voice of your wife.
Speaker 1: of your wife in a time not to, Adam chose the time not to.
Speaker 1: Because you have hated the voice of your wife and you have eaten of the tree, which I commanded
Speaker 1: you saying, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is ground for your sake. In toil, you shall eat of it
Speaker 1: all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles, it shall bring forth for you. And you
Speaker 1: shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you
Speaker 1: return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.
Speaker 1: That's this life. And it's going to be trouble. There's going to be weeds and thorns and labor and
Speaker 1: sweat of your brow, till the day you die. I'm getting older now. I sit on the couch a lot more
Speaker 1: than I used to, and I get chastised by my family for it. I had to do the brakes on my wife's car.
Speaker 1: I was impersonating a mechanic yesterday.
Speaker 1: And the sweat was dripping off my cowboy hat.
Speaker 1: I'm never going to outgrow this, you guys.
Speaker 1: You're never going to outgrow this.
Speaker 1: Moses said the same thing in Psalm 90.
Speaker 1: It's that whole teach us to number our days, Lord.
Speaker 1: But he says in verse 10 of Psalm 90,
Speaker 1: the days of our lives are 70 years.
Speaker 1: and if by reason of strength they are 80 years,
Speaker 1: yet their boast is only labor and sorrow.
Speaker 1: For it is soon cut off and we fly away.
Speaker 1: That's when we'll be at ease when we fly away.
Speaker 1: Not until then.
Speaker 1: Because you've got aches and pains, my hip, my shoulder, labor and sorrow.
Speaker 1: Just give it.
Speaker 1: Let's just get used to it.
Speaker 1: the man who had the bumper crop
Speaker 1: Jesus tells the story right
Speaker 1: oh the crop
Speaker 1: in fact my barns can't even hold it so I'm tearing my barns down
Speaker 1: and I'm building bigger and better barns
Speaker 1: and I'm going to fill it with all my bumper crop
Speaker 1: and I'm going to take a life of ease and the Lord says you fool
Speaker 1: you fool
Speaker 1: today
Speaker 1: your soul is required of you
Speaker 1: that's what you need to be focused on, is our soul.
Speaker 1: Because it may be required of us.
Speaker 1: Even today, I've been hearing of the weirdest, bizarrest deaths of people.
Speaker 1: Just recently.
Speaker 1: And young people, all of them younger and me.
Speaker 1: I'm just going, really?
Speaker 1: They died, yeah.
Speaker 1: Ran five miles a couple days ago and three days later, they're dead.
Speaker 1: Well, they shouldn't run so hard.
Speaker 1: What's our focus?
Speaker 1: These are distractions.
Speaker 1: These choke out our faith that's precious to the Lord.
Speaker 1: Notice the woman in chapter 7,
Speaker 1: your faith has made you well.
Speaker 1: Your faith has healed you.
Speaker 1: that's what we need to grow and strengthen in our lives is our faith
Speaker 1: last of all
Speaker 1: but the ones verse 15 that fell on good ground
Speaker 1: are those who having heard the word with a noble and good heart
Speaker 1: keep it and bear fruit with patience
Speaker 1: patience that's the key
Speaker 1: no you just keep on keeping on
Speaker 1: one day at a time sweet jesus everybody knows the christie lane song right
Speaker 1: one day at a time sweet jesus is all that's all that i need is one day at a time
Speaker 1: live for him one day at a time don't get too far out in front of yourself right that is drudgery
Speaker 1: that's just like oh no way i can't do it my brother always used to say and i quote it i seem to quote it
Speaker 1: the time. Life by the inch is a cinch. Life by the yard is hard. One day at a time. Just walk with
Speaker 1: Jesus. Jesus said tomorrow is going to have enough trouble of its own. And fruit, fruit is the
Speaker 1: evidence of the changed life. It really is. When your life starts becoming all about Jesus,
Speaker 1: Some of those guys, I went to the rodeo the last couple of days, and I've seen some old buddies.
Speaker 1: Some old buddies that seen me do some really bad things.
Speaker 1: And I mean, we have a hoo-rah, and they joke around.
Speaker 1: They joke around with me and being a preacher man and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: And I still love those guys.
Speaker 1: Some of them have slowed down on their hell-bent-for-election lifestyle.
Speaker 1: but but it's just cool to see they see a difference.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Lord.
Speaker 1: They see a difference that a life surrendered to Jesus can actually bear fruit
Speaker 1: and that God can use you and me.
Speaker 1: That's still kind of mind-boggling to me.
Speaker 1: But it's important because it's the proof that we are truly belonging.
Speaker 1: to him that we've truly been converted, that the word of God is truly sunk down deep in our hearts
Speaker 1: and begins to bear fruit, some 30, some 60, some 100, the other gospel says. Four things in closing
Speaker 1: that I just remind. Number one, examine your heart. You know, you know yourself. Not as good as the
Speaker 1: Lord does, but you know yourself. Please don't think yourself more highly of yourself than you ought to,
Speaker 1: right? We've all sin and fallen short of the glory of God.
Speaker 1: I see myself as a sinner saved by grace, right?
Speaker 1: 2 Corinthians chapter 135 tells us,
Speaker 1: examine yourselves to see whether you're in the faith.
Speaker 1: Test yourselves.
Speaker 1: Test yourself.
Speaker 1: Secondly, break up the hard ground.
Speaker 1: If you've been hard towards the Lord, you can get soft.
Speaker 1: I remember I'd been so hard towards the Lord at 23,
Speaker 1: and I was living in this little trailer house in central California,
Speaker 1: And man, I was just living hellishly and hardening my heart towards the Lord.
Speaker 1: In fact, I seen some Christian people that I knew were Christian people.
Speaker 1: It's funny.
Speaker 1: When you're backslidden, you just go the other way.
Speaker 1: I didn't want to see them.
Speaker 1: And my heart was getting hard.
Speaker 1: But as I sat in that trailer house all by myself, there was a Bible sitting on the little table next to me under a lamp.
Speaker 1: And I looked at it and I said,
Speaker 1: oh, Lord, please forgive me.
Speaker 1: That simple.
Speaker 1: That was how I softened the ground of my heart,
Speaker 1: just by saying, oh, Lord, forgive me.
Speaker 1: And, you know, it tells us in Hosea 10, 12,
Speaker 1: it says, so for yourself,
Speaker 1: so for yourselves righteousness,
Speaker 1: reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground,
Speaker 1: for it is time to seek the Lord.
Speaker 1: It was time for me in that moment to just say,
Speaker 1: okay. And I literally threw my hands in the air that night and said, okay, the rest of this thing,
Speaker 1: whatever is left of it, it's yours. And I just surrendered to him. So examine yourselves. Break up
Speaker 1: that hardness that's in your heart. Number three, pull the weeds. Put away those things that
Speaker 1: distract you. Right? That's why I have the old dinosaur flip phone. It's such a
Speaker 1: distraction for me, you know, I'm one of them dudes with a little ADHD, you know, can think about
Speaker 1: a hundred things all at the same time. That's why at my house I got 15 projects started,
Speaker 1: none of them completed. It's a distraction. The one constant that I have is I try to read the word
Speaker 1: every morning. Put the seed in the ground. Right? Otherwise, you can just let the seed
Speaker 1: on the table.
Speaker 1: No, put it in the ground.
Speaker 1: The ground of your heart.
Speaker 1: And fourthly, which takes us right to it, is stay rooted in the word.
Speaker 1: Good soil retains the word of God, right?
Speaker 1: You can meditate on it.
Speaker 1: You read it over and over again.
Speaker 1: You can memorize it.
Speaker 1: And most importantly, obey it.
Speaker 1: Obey it.
Speaker 1: You know, we see.
Speaker 1: started this first part of chapter eight the first few verses these 12 men and these women that
Speaker 1: were with Jesus they they were good soil right they listened to the words of Jesus and let those
Speaker 1: words of Jesus transform their lives the grace of God isn't it amazing let stand shall we
Speaker 1: and we'll pray
Speaker 1: Lord, I pray for us as your people, Lord, that we would truly be that good soil.
Speaker 1: Lord, that it's plowed up and it's moistened by your mercy and your grace.
Speaker 1: Lord, that you would give us just the wherewithal.
Speaker 1: to be your witnesses in this world that we would bear fruit.
Speaker 1: Lord, just by showing your love, being consistent,
Speaker 1: Lord, give us a passion as your people for your word
Speaker 1: to truly write it upon the pages of our heart.
Speaker 2: As the psalmist said there, Lord, that we might not sin against you,
Speaker 2: knowing that the fruit that will come from that is something
Speaker 2: that I don't think will totally understand this side of heaven.
Speaker 2: So, Lord, move in us, would you?
Speaker 2: Lord, would we just be in a number of heaven?
Speaker 2: all of your amazing grace in Jesus' name.