What Soil Are You?

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0:20Well, One of the most important things is to hear from God's word. And so would you join me as we turn to the Lord in prayer and ask for his help? Father, As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall your word go forth. It shall not return empty, but it shall accomplish that which you purpose and it shall succeed in the very thing that you sent it. And so come now in the power of your spirit and give us eyes to see, and ears to hear and hearts that would come alive to the preaching of your word.

1:13And that we would hear the very voice of Jesus this morning. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. By show of hands, how many of you have made a New Year's resolution only to fizzle out days later? Yes, many of us, many of us, I have done them all. Uh, maybe you're on the latest diet craze, keto or paleo or intermittent fasting. Maybe you were inspired to memorize a book of the Bible and you stopped just a few days later. Maybe you wanna learn a new language and you lasted only a day or two on some app like Duolingo. Maybe you were inspired hearing someone else and you're like, I'm gonna wake up at 4:00 AM every morning and get all this work done before 8:00 AM and it lasts only one day.

2:15Maybe you're gonna teach yourself guitar or stay off social media. I'm gonna budget and track every dollar. Yet often our enthusiasm is short-lived. I wonder if any of us can resonate. You have good intentions, but you fail to follow through. Unfortunately, this is also true when it comes to spiritual things. You've probably seen people get excited about their newfound faith in Jesus and they just can't help themselves. They're so excited. And then weeks, months, maybe even years later, they're nowhere to be seen. Maybe that's even you. Their zeal has fizzled out. And we wonder, were they ever saved? What?

3:00What do we make of their short lived enthusiasm? Well, in our passage this morning, Jesus describes very promising beginnings that have very different endings, some bear fruit, while others do not. And this passage, my guess is if you've been a believer for some time, is a very familiar passage. For many of us, we've heard it before. And it's one of the parables where Jesus gives the interpretation. Jesus gives us the parable in verses one through nine. He tells us about the purpose of parables in 10 through 17. And then he interprets the parable itself in 18 to 23. And it's the first time the word parable has been used in Matthew's gospel.

3:47Though prior to that, we've seen Jesus used different kind of riddle like sayings that are very parable like. This will also be the first of seven parables in Matthew chapter 13. And so this is a really important one for us to understand. And in fact, in Mark's gospel chapter four, it says, if you don't understand this gospel, how will you possibly understand all the rest? Now, what we've seen up to this point we've been in, in the gospel of Matthew, those of you who have been with us, we've transitioned from the rejection that Jesus has received from the Pharisees in chapter 12. Now to Jesus teaching in parables.

4:30And it's a bit of a turning point because Jesus' teaching is going to be less plain spoken from this point forward. When he is around these Pharisees, it's gonna become more opaque, more fuzzy to those who have rejected him. And this parable explains a little bit about why the scribes and the Pharisees and the crowds have rejected their Messiah. And it also challenges us this morning with this question, what kind of soil are we? What kind of soil are you this morning? How will I, how will you respond to the voice of Jesus? So the main point in our text this morning is that true believers will hear Jesus understand his words and will actually bear fruit in their lives.

5:26True believers will hear, understand, and bear fruit. And all three are required to be a true believer of Jesus. So we're gonna walk through our passage in three parts. We're gonna look at the parable, the interpretation, and then we'll come back to the purpose. So we're gonna go out of order one through nine, 18 to 23, and then back to 10 through 17. So if you have your Bible, let me encourage you to look on with me. Look at verse one here. We come to the parable of the soils that same day. So, so Matthew is linking this with the rejection that we saw in chapter 12. That same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.

6:09Jesus conceivably gets in this boat. We see in verse two in order to teach because the crowds are just swarming him. This is probably a little bit of a inlet or a little bit of a cove. And it amplified Jesus' voice as he taught from the boat. He could face all of these people and a a little bit like standing in an elevation on a pulpit. And verse three it says, and he told them many things in parables. Now before we begin in parables, we have to define perhaps what is a parable. And because of the diversity of what we see in the Bible of all the different parables, it's actually quite hard to define.

6:50It could be a bit of a proverb or a figure of speech, a illustration. More often than not, it's a metaphor or a simile or an analogy. Some have called it earthly sayings or earthly stories with heavenly meanings. I think very simply we can say that parables are analogies that have lessons meant to teach and to persuade. These are analogies that have lessons meant to teach or to persuade. Jesus speaks in parables because he wants people to think upon what he says, to roll it over in their minds, to, uh, kinda take a walk and and think, wait, what did he mean by that? And then not just reflection, but to prompt action, reflection, and action.

7:39Now, verses three to nine, I, I'm not gonna reread those, but just notice several things about the parable. A stories drawn from everyday life farming was often done by hand. Jesus' audience would've been very familiar with what he was describing. And the focus of the parable is on the soils. The sower and the seed are important, but the primary attention is given to the types of soil. And so we're given four types of soil. The first one is where some seed accidentally seemingly falls along the footpath that ran through a field. Remember how in, in those days, the footpaths just ran right through someone's field?

8:19It had been packed down dirt. It was kind of like a well worn hiking trail. And the seed falls on that and it gets eaten up by birds devoured before it ever has a chance to take root. The second soil was rocky ground in that day, in that time it meant the soil had this limestone layer just inches beneath the surface. So the stones trap the moisture near the surface so that the seeds sprout quickly, but then they can't develop roots. It's a little bit like in your garden when you lay down that black matting, right? Then you throw some stuff over that and stuff can grow, but it can easily be pulled out.

9:02They can't develop deep roots. When the sun comes, it's scorches and shrives the plants, the growth is ultimately short-lived. The third soil is among these thorn bushes, the overcrowding of the weeds, buck, thorns, thistles, the, the weeds steal all of the moisture, steal all of the sunlight, and it ul ultimately chokes out or starves to death. The seed, uh, these new shoots, these new plants. And then the fourth soil is good soil that produces grain 160 and 30 fold. Under ideal conditions, a single seed of wheat can grow into a mature plant with I think multiple stems. Each of those stems can contain dozens of seeds.

9:48So a single grain can achieve a hundred fold increase. This is a great crop, but I don't believe it's referring to a miraculous or an exaggeration. Uh, I think he's just saying this is a great harvest that we see. And look at what Jesus says in verse nine. He who has ears let him hear, well, which of the people don't have ears? They all have ears. The the point is not use your physical ears. It, it's are your spiritual ears open to what Jesus is saying? Now just pause for a moment with me because we're, we're so familiar with this parable. Imagine that you know nothing about the parables. You've never heard a sermon on this.

10:36You've, you've never read the interpretation. What do you think of this story up to this point? That's a rather dull, it's rather unimaginative. Uninteresting. Even this isn't a great farmer if four or three of his four soils are unproductive. In other words, there's more to this story and you need to have this spiritual sensitivity to be able to discern it. Now what we're gonna do next is look at verses 18 to 23, the interpretation of the parable. We're gonna come back to 10 through 17 at the end. So now look with me at verse 18. Skip down there here. Then the parable of the sower just reflect for a moment.

11:22At every point in this teaching hearing is emphasized. If you have ears, let him hear now then hear the parable of the sower. There's the spiritual attentiveness that Jesus is calling for. And we've all done this before, haven't we? We hear someone speak to us, but we have no idea what they said. And this happens in my home very often. My wife is talking to me and my mind is somewhere else. And so I'm like, huh? What? Say, say that again Or, or you're listening to a podcast, you got your headphones in, someone's talking and then you realize, I've been doing something else. Uh, I need to rewind because I've been hearing but not hearing.

12:06And and that's what Jesus is calling for. Listen up with your mind's attention. Now we see four different types of soil and he interprets it for us. We see hard, shallow, divided and good soil. Four types, hard, shallow, divided and good. Verse 19 reads, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches it away and snatches away what has been sewn in his heart. This is what was sewn along the path. And so we discover that the seed is the word of the kingdom and we also know that Jesus is the sower. Uh, later on in chapter 13, verse 37, it says, the sower who sows the good seed is the son of man.

12:59So Jesus is the sower, the seed is the teaching of his kingdom. And at first glance, it says, the one who hears but does not understand, almost seems like a victim, right? Like they're somehow not smart enough to understand. But that's not what's happening here. The idea of does not understand, refers to those who have hardened their hearts, excuse me, hardened their hearts and stopped up their ears. Remember, this is connected to chapter 12, and what are the scribes and Pharisees guilty of? They've rejected Jesus. They want nothing to do with him. They see his signs, they hear his teaching and they're saying, you're not the Messiah.

13:39We don't believe in you. Show us another sign. Up to this point, they have rejected Jesus outright. We'll see this in just a moment when we look at 10 to 17. But the Pharisees refuse to see the signs that point to Jesus' identity. It's a little bit like the child who plugs their ears and says, I can't hear you. That's what the Pharisees are doing it. It's not just they can't understand. They refuse to understand this is hardness of heart. This is outright rejection of God. This is the wickedness and the rebellion of this generation that Jesus has called out from chapter 12 verse 45. So what happens? The evil one signified by the birds comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.

14:30Those who hardened their hearts to Jesus have the seed devoured by Satan. This is almost exactly what we saw back in chapter 12. Verse 43 to 45, Jesus casts out the demon from the individual. It's left empty because they will not receive Jesus lordship. And so the demon comes back with seven others more evil than itself. And it indwells that man. Jesus describes the state of the scribes and the Pharisees who have rejected Jesus. They are much worse off. Whatever they have has been taken away. Soil. Two, the shallow soil, look with me at 20 and 21, as for what was sewn on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.

15:22Yet he has no root in himself but endures for just a while. And when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word immediately, he falls away and notice the word immediately. And was also in verse five. The, the idea here is that the soil hears and receives with joy right away, but it this falls short of a true saving faith in Jesus. Jesus I think is describing the crowds. They're amazed by his miracles, but they're just a bunch of bandwagon fans. Uh, they're just there because they've seen something amazing and they wanna see more amazing stuff they've eaten of their fill. They want to eat a little bit more.

16:08The crowds will hail Jesus as king and then jump ship as quickly as they can. When things get tough, the crowds come to Jesus for bread. But very few will become true disciples. We see that later in Mark eight. There's no root, there's no staying power when they're going to have to suffer. For Jesus endure persecution, they immediately fall away as fast as the crowds flocked to Jesus. They scatter just as quickly. There's no commitment. Just as an aside, this is, this is uh, a perpetual danger all the time. But it's one of the reasons we don't do altar calls each week or spontaneous baptisms at church.

16:54When we baptize someone, they've gone through a process because we know that someone can make a false profession of faith. True faith must endure. Lemme just give you an example of this type of soil. In 2019, there was this really prominent music artist, if I said his name, some of you would know who I'm talking about, who openly proclaimed his conversion to Christianity. He actually released a a music album titled Jesus is King. That that's pretty amazing. He spent $50 million performing concerts that he dubbed Sunday service, that had gospel music and he invited a preacher to come and preach the gospel.

17:38And I think it was a pretty solid preacher even that was preaching at these services. But now he is back to his old ways releasing music with vulgar lyrics. In that album, his latest album, he proclaims, I'm the New Jesus Shocking. In an interview someone was asking him about his faith and he said, I have my issues with Jesus. There's a lot of stuff I went through and I prayed and I ain't see Jesus show up. When tribulation came immediately, he falls away. Trials revealed that he was never a true follower of Jesus. Now we come to the third soil, the divided soil. Look at verse 22. As for what was sewn among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it proves unfruitful.

18:37So with this third soil, it's not persecution, but it's actually worldliness and wealth that choke the life out of this individual. The cares of the world are the things that Jesus had been teaching about in the Sermon on the Mount. Anxiety over having enough food, having enough drink, having enough clothing. It's the anxiety of not having enough. But the other anxiety is on the other end of the spectrum. It's not having, excuse me, it's never enough. It's the anxiety of never enough. The deceitfulness of riches lures us into this false sense of security that I can insulate my life with the troubles from the troubles of the world.

19:17If I can just get a big enough 401k, a big enough Roth, IRA big enough retirement accounts so that I can fire right financial independence, retire early, then I'm going to be all right. But Jesus has taught you cannot serve God and money. You can't have two masters. If you choose wealth over Jesus, you will get fools gold over the kingdom of heaven. True disciples of Jesus don't let not enough or never enough choke out their devotion to Jesus. And so this is again, what Jesus has already taught on, but he's highlighting it again. The soil ultimately proves unfruitful. And Jesus teaches that every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away John 15.

20:11Two works cannot save, but faith without works is dead. James two 17. So bearing fruit must be is the evidence of true salvation. Now we come to the fourth soil, the good soil, verse 23. 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 hundred fold and another 60 and in another 30. What's the difference between this soil and all the others that we've seen? They all heard the word of the kingdom. They all heard the gospel. The first soil doesn't understand. The second and third soils appear to understand, but there's no enduring fruit.

21:00The fourth soil hears Jesus understands in their heart and mind and then lives it out and bears much good fruit. Now the question for us then is what does it mean to bear fruit? What's the evidence whether we're this fourth soil, that should be the critical question for believers this morning. If I'm to be this fourth soil, what? What should I be looking for? Well, this parable doesn't tell us. That makes it a little bit challenging. But Matthew's gospel has up to this point, John the Baptist proclaimed Matthew three eight, bear fruit in keeping with repentance bear fruit, in keeping with repentance.

21:49In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, believers will exhibit joy in persecution. Not fall away when persecution comes, but actually exhibit joy, faith, trust, or that we're called to shine the light of good works, which give glory to God, that will live righteously. So what is this fruit? It's the pattern of ongoing obedience from the heart. I think what the fruit is, is this pattern of ongoing obedience from the heart. So it's growing in holiness. It's bearing the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. This is not a singular moment, but it's this continual pattern of imperfect but growing obedience.

22:41When I was young and I would read this, I used to always think that it was being able to lead someone to faith. Like that would be the fruit and, and I had to lead someone to faith, or I wasn't a real true believer. I I don't think that's the case. And yes, there is a sense in which evangelistic fruit should be some of the fruits, but don't neglect the vital fruits of faith and, and trust and repentance and confession and combating anxiety and generosity and obeying your parents for the children among us and looking out for the vulnerable or the elderly or refusing to cheat or lie at work or resisting sexual temptation and not cussing when it used to be your habitual pattern.

23:29Reading your Bible, prioritizing corporate worship, coming to God with heartfelt prayers and increasing in kindness and love for one another. All of these are some of those fruits. And yes, as we live in these ways, let's share the gospel with others and bring many others into his kingdom. So there are a thousand fruits of faith that God wants to exhibit in the lives of his children. Now we're gonna come back to the purpose of the parables verses 10 to 17. Look with me at verse 10. I'm gonna read 10 to 13. Here we rewind to the purpose of the parables. Just notice the interpretation was just given to the disciples.

24:15And this section 10 to 17 is just given to Jesus disciples. So after he was teaching, they pulled him aside and they were like, what? What's going on? So we see that verse 10. Then disciples came and said to him, why do you speak to them in parables? And he answered them to you. It has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given for to the one who has more will be given and he will have an abundance. But the one but from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables because seeing they do not see and hearing, they do not hear, nor do they understand.

24:56The disciples are, are obviously confused and they, they, they don't know what's going on. This is actually shows up again in verse 36 of chapter 13. The disciples are like, explain to us the parable. 'cause we, we, we don't get it. So Jesus, how does Jesus reply? Jesus reveals that parables are designed to both conceal and to reveal. The parables are designed to both conceal and to reveal the, the, the parables conceal the truth from those who reject Jesus. And secondly, the parables reveal the truth to those who believe in Jesus. And, and so the disciples who submit to Jesus, they have been given the secrets, the secret truths of the kingdom.

25:46But the scribes and the Pharisees and even the crowds who have rejected Jesus' authority will grow increasingly resistant and hardened against Jesus' teaching against Jesus' truth. Now what's this secret or mystery? I think very simply it's the message of the kingdom of heaven that Jesus has been preaching throughout Matthew's gospel. It's that he is the son of God. He is the son of man from Daniel seven who has come. And the ancient of days is the one who's going to give him authority and a kingdom and an everlasting kingdom that will never end. He is the Messiah, the long awaited one who has come to redeem Israel.

26:28This is the secret of the kingdom. And it's the very truth that the Pharisees and the scribes and even the crowds have outright rejected. They're blind to these realities. And so Jesus parables function, function as judgment against those who refuse to see and hear and believe. That's why Jesus says, this is why I speak to them in parables. Because seeing they won't see and hearing, they won't hear nor will they understand. What this does is it highlights the tension between human responsibility and divine sovereignty. Israel refuses this willful rejection of Jesus and his teaching. Jesus did not cause their hardness of heart by his parables, but they hardened their hearts against Jesus.

27:22So Jesus teaching is going to solidify their hardness of heart and their spiritual dullness. This is a little bit like how the Bible describes Pharaoh and Exodus. Pharaoh hardened his heart against God and God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Or in Romans one, the people did not see fit to acknowledge God. They, they saw God, they could recognize hi his works in creation, but they did not see fit to acknowledge God. And so what happened? God gave them up to a debased mind. What they were able to see, they were even no longer able to see in response to their hardheartedness. Jesus veils the truth. And then this is when he quotes Isaiah six, nine and 10, verse 14, look with me there indeed, in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah's fulfilled that says, you will indeed hear but never understand.

28:18You will indeed see, but never perceive. For this, people's heart has grown dull and with their eyes, they can barely, with their ears, they can barely hear and their eyes, they have closed lest they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart and turn and eye would heal them. What's going on here in Isaiah? Isaiah six, Isaiah sees this glorious vision of the Lord. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And the seraphim with their six wings are crying out of God's greatness and holiness. And his robe fills the temple with glory. And Isaiah is being sent and he says, woe is me.

28:58I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. And Cole is brought down and purifies him. And they say, we're, we're gonna send you Isaiah to this people. But, and this is where Isaiah six, nine and 10 come in. They're not gonna listen to you. Uh, they're gonna hear but not hear. They're gonna see but not see. And they will not understand. You're going to be this messenger that will stand as evidence of their judgment. Though you're still called to call for their repentance, but they're not gonna listen to you. They're gonna reject you. Their hardness of heart will stand against them on judgment day and Isaiah will be the witness.

29:39And Jesus quotes Isaiah to basically say this same situation is being reacted reenacted in this generation. They refuse to listen not just to Isaiah now, but to Jesus himself. God's chosen messengers and Israel's spiritual senses are blind, deaf and dull. And they refuse to recognize their Messiah. 'cause the question when we read Matthew 12 is why don't the Jewish people recognize their own Messiah? But why do the scribes and Pharisees who know the scriptures better than anyone else refuse to acknowledge Jesus? Well, this passage, this parable explains why this is why the people reject their own Messiah.

30:30It was prophesied that they would harden their hearts to God. It's judgment and God has turned his back on them. And this almost catches us off guard a little bit, doesn't it? Parables conceal the truth from those who have hardened themselves against the truth. And we, we might think, well, how does that square with something like Second Peter three, nine, the Lord is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but all should reach repentance. Like isn't that the heart of God? Isn't, isn't Jesus really patient and kind and gracious? And again, this reveals the tension between divine sovereignty and election and human responsibility in rejection, parables reveal and conceal.

31:20And if you persistently refuse to see, hear, and believe in Jesus, even the very truths that you've seen will be removed. This is why in Isaiah 55, 10 and 11, it says, your word will go forth and accomplish its purpose. It's like the rain that falls from the sky. Pray that in the opening prayer, it's like the rain that falls from the sky waters, the earth gives seed to the sower, bread to the eater. It will have its intended effect and accomplish its purpose. And you could say, well, not everyone gets saved. It can't accomplish its purpose in every single way. And we would say, no, it does. It's just that some will be condemned by it.

32:02The preaching of the word will stand as the evidence against them on judgment day. And if we struggle with this, if we bristle at God's judgment here, it it's, it's no different than in Pharaoh. And in Romans one, if you persistently refuse truth at some point you don't get anymore. The people hate truth. So God stops giving truth. The people hate light. So God withholds the light, but don't miss the main thrust of this entire text. If we dwell there, we'll lose sight of the main thrust of this entire text. It's lavish and abundant truth. This farmer isn't stingy with sowing his seed. He scatters it far and wide, even if it falls on the path, even if it falls around among rocky ground, he's just scattering the seed far and wide because God's heart is that many would come to see and hear and believe and turn and go from hearts of stone to hearts of flesh that would respond to his truth.

33:09Every soil has this opportunity to hear and to respond with repentance and faith. Today is the day of salvation. Do not neglect how great a salvation even in the hearing of these words from my mouth this morning. Now verse 16 and 17, conclude the section, but blessed are your eyes for they see in your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see. And did not see it to hear what you hear and did not hear it again, the emphasis is placed on human responsibility. The scribes and Pharisees have willfully, persistently refused and rejected Jesus' teaching.

33:55And so the warning for us this morning don't persistently reject Jesus and his teaching. And the disciples, they're some of the most privileged people in history. So the main point of our text is that true believers hear Jesus' words. They hear with spiritual ears, they understand with soft hearts, and then they bear fruit in a pattern of obedience. And this parable is meant to reveal and to conceal. So what does this mean to us?

34:35Which soil are we this morning? What's, what's the state of your heart before the Lord? Do you have ears to hear or are you like, Hey, what, what? You said something. Are my eyes open to these spiritual truths? Am I responding to Jesus with a soft heart? And some, maybe he here, even in this room might wrongly think, well, I guess I'm just one of the first three soils and I can't be saved. And that would be a wrong response. And Jesus tells the parable to prod you to listen and to reflect. And it demands this heart response. And if you recognize that's the state of my heart, I'm totally anxious about the cares of the world, or I don't know if I'm gonna hold onto Jesus.

35:22When trials and tribulation come, the whole point of the parable is to say, oh, cry out to the Lord of the harvest and say, oh Lord, capture my heart. Make me someone who sees the infinite worth and value of Jesus and that I would put you first. That's the right response when you recognize the deficiency of your own heart. Because the reality is, we're all, some of these different soils at various points of our life, aren't we? Sometimes we're anxious about the cares of the world. Sometimes we're fearful of trials and suffering and tribulation. When we get that diagnosis and we're in the hospital and we're like, why, Lord?

36:02Well, we're just hardened. We're just hardened. Uh, we hear the preaching of the word and we're like, ah, I'm so bored. We're so bored. I remember that when I was in college, uh, I, I was so hardened to the things of God. I think I was a believer, but I was just so hearted. And I remember praying. I said, Lord, I don't know how to soften my own heart in this moment. I think you have to kill my parents in order for me to sort of feel emotion once again in terms of spiritual things. And thankfully he didn't do that, but he softened my heart. And so some of you are there this morning. You're so hardened to the things of God.

36:44And what you need to do is cry out to the Lord, oh, soften my heart because I can't do it. Take out my heart of stone, put in a heart of flesh so that I would feel affection for Jesus once again, because I've lost sight of my first love. Oh, you need the Lord to do that in you by the power of the Spirit because you can't do it yourself. You can't do your own heart transplant. Only the Lord can do that for you this morning. Four brief applications. First, don't harden your heart. Rejecting Jesus leads to deeper rejection. That that's the scary warning of this passage. The first soil reveals that if we keep resisting God's word, we may be given over to our sin.

37:33Oh, do not harden your heart against the Lord this morning. Don't hold on to sin and trade in eternal life. In Hebrews 3 15, 4 7, it says Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts today. If you hear my voice, the voice of Jesus channeling through my words, oh, do not harden your hearts. Cry out, Lord, save me. Application number two, admiration is ultimately insufficient. The shallow soil admired Jesus. Those who saw Jesus admired him, but it was ultimately not enough. They got excited about him for a short while, but it ultimately was not enough. True faith requires enduring through trials and suffering and persecution.

38:29And if you're unwilling to follow Jesus when things get tough, then you may not be a true believer. And so what do you do? Marveling at the Messiah is not enough. Hold fast to Jesus through trials and suffering. Or Hebrews 12, set your eyes. Look to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of your faith, who he himself endured great suffering. Application. Number three, beware of being nominal. Beware of being nominal. This is probably the spirit of our age. If you watch any award, show everyone thanks God. And if you looked at their lives, you would be like, I don't think you know God. And and that's probably true of our neighborhoods and our workplaces.

39:15People would be like, oh yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm I know God. And you look at their lives and you'd be like, Hmm, I don't know. A nominal believer is not a true believer of Jesus. A nominal believer is not a true disciple of Jesus. Even the phrase itself is a contradiction, nominal believer, you must put Jesus first. Those who don't prioritize Jesus will have their spiritual vitality suffocated by the anxieties and the cares of this world and lured by materialism. And so beware of being seduced by the pleasures and comforts of our world.

39:55And the, the particularly terrible part of it is we have a prosperity gospel floating around our world in the United States and in places like Africa and Latin America that have been exported from America, that basically says, Jesus is the means for you to get money, wealth, mammon and so trade Jesus, use him so that you can get what you really want. And the reality is, if money is what you really want, at the end of the day, you don't ultimately know Jesus.

40:32And if you have family members in any of these first three categories, and we probably all do, don't cease praying for them. God overcomes hardness of heart and gives life to the dead. He has done it. He will do it. And he will keep doing that glorious work. The good news of the gospel is that we cannot save ourselves. We can't do that heart transplant. But Jesus has already accomplished that work. He offers indiscriminate new life for all those who will come and believe. And he says, just come, come to me with all of your weaknesses and failures and problems and your hardness of heart, your fickle desires, your shallowness, your fear of suffering.

41:17And I will transform you from the inside out. I will take out that heart of stone and put in this heart of flesh. So don't stop praying. And lastly, may we bear fruit through obedience. A true disciple of Jesus hears, understands and will bear fruit. Uh, in Ephesians two 10, it says, God has prepared for us good works that we should walk in them. I think that's such an encouraging verse. Why? Because we think of good works as something I gotta do. It's gonna be hard work. And he's like, it's like walking. You do it every day. Most of us do. It's just like walking. Why? Because that's who you are.

42:04This is your new identity in Christ. And by his grace, he will multiply our effectiveness so that we would bear a harvest a hundred fold, 60 fold, and 30 fold it. It's so encouraging to me that the lowest number he gives is 30 fold. 30 fold. And so may we bear much good fruit to the glory of God. Let's pray. Father, oh, that you would awaken our hearts. Give us eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to respond in faith. And for any of us who are wavering, I feel like I'm half this soil and half this soil, and I want to be good, but I don't feel that at this particular moment, oh, that you would break in and give us enduring faith that would persevere and bear much good fruit to the glory of God.

43:03Oh, would you make us a garden city that bears much good fruit for our community, for mounds view, for the state of Minnesota and to the very ends of the earth? We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

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Christ Has Come, He Will Come Again

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Christ Has Come, He Will Come Again

The End Is Not Yet

Woe To Hypocrites!

What Soil Are You?

Surpassing Worth Of Christ

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