Flipside Christian Church

we're in Matthew 13 this morning.

As we make our way very slowly

through the gospel of Matthew.

We spent three weeks in chapter 12.

There was a lot there.

And we're going to spend

three weeks or so in

Matthew chapter 13,
because there's a lot here.

Matthew 13 is,

is full of seven different parables.

Seven
there are seven parables of Matthew 13,

and I want to help
you understand what a parable is.

And what we're going to see in this first

parable is going to give us
the opportunity for two things.

First, in verses one through 23,
this is the first parable in Matthew 13,

we're going to have the opportunity

to gain the tools
to assess our own hearts.

That's
the first thing we're going to gain.

Do you understand that?

Like we're going to be able
to assess our own heart.

But the second thing is
we're going to understand now

what's happening right

now in the unseen reality.

In response to the Scripture.

Right now, there's something going on

in your heart and in my heart.

And we're going to see

there's there's four reactions.

There's four responses

to God's Word.

And every one of us is experiencing
one of these four.

And we're going to see that

in Matthew 13 verses one through 23.

That's helpful.

It tells me what's going on in me.

It helps me
diagnose and assess my own heart.

And it also enables me
to know how to pray for those I love,

because the same thing
is going in their hearts.

And so Jesus tells these seven parables

and what a parable is, we have
to understand what it is a parable.

Is it a parable means literally to throw
beside something.

It means to toss something beside
something.

And so a parable is a story set
in real life experience.

That's

thrown
beside a truth that's hard to understand,

to give it better understanding.

That's what a parable is.

So when Jesus needs to tell some hard

truth,
that's kind of difficult to understand.

He will take a story.

He'll he'll tell a story from real life
and throw it next to that.

And by doing that, that's supposed

to help the truth to be better understood.

Do you follow? That's what a parable is.

And so in Matthew 13
is going to tell seven of them.

Just by way of introduction

in in Matthew 13, they're seven parables.

Parables two, three, four, five, six
all begin

with the kingdom of heaven is like this.

First one we'll look at today.

Jesus doesn't say that.

So the the following six though he always
says, the kingdom of heaven is like.

And so what he's doing is explaining to us

this difficult thing to understand
about the kingdom of heaven.

And so he throws parables, stories next
to it to help us easier understand it.

That's the point of this

in Matthew.

Jesus uses the words

as Matthew records
that the kingdom of heaven.

Of the four Gospels, only three of them

have parables Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

There's no parables of Jesus
and the Gospel of John.

In Matthew,

Matthew records
Jesus words as the kingdom of heaven.

In Mark and Luke, those two authors
recorded as the kingdom of God.

There's not a lot of difference.

There's some.

Some reasons why they did that
given like their perspective

and what they're coming from
and who they're writing to.

But basically it's the same thing.

And what it means
is the rule and reign of God

in this world and over our lives.

So the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom
of God, is the rule and reign of God.

And so

there's a pretty profound,
deep, huge topic.

So Jesus is going to throw these stories
next to it to help us understand it.

Do you follow?

Yes. That's what the parables are.

And that's why Jesus uses them.

This first parable

that we'll look at today, verses
one through 23,

is about the universal reality
for all people

when it comes to Scripture,
when it comes to truth, when it comes

to the gospel, when it comes to to Christ,
this is universally true for all people.

And there's only four responses

that every person

fits in.

That's this first parable
and then the next three.

So parables two, three and four

have to do with the fact

that there's in the kingdom of God

or the church,
there's righteous and evil mixed together.

Okay.

Yeah.

Have you ever thought, why is that?

Some people in the church.

Why is it so bad? Anybody?

Why are there such horrible
people who call themselves Christians?

Anybody?

Yeah.

Do you ever look in the mirror
that's getting.

And so. No.

So so so Jesus is saying, listen,
my kingdom

and the church is going to be full

of righteous people and evil people,
and some of them,

you're not really going to be able
to tell the difference much at all.

And he said, just leave them alone.

Let me worry about them.

That's parables two, three, four.

Then parables five, six, seven.

Are these parables that Jesus throws
next to a truth, and the truth is this

that God saw something in,

evil, nasty world that was so valuable

that he gave his
son to redeem it and buy it.

That's what parables five, six,
seven are about.

So overall kingdom rule and reign of God.

And he's going to throw these parables
next to these two truths

to help us understand it better.

So that's where we're headed.

That's what this is about.

And so what I want to do is

I want to read these first nine verses,

and then we're just going to take it in
chunks and we're going to talk about them.

And, and some of this will be familiar
to you.

Some of it won't be,
but let's just follow along here.

First nine verses.

Chapter 13, verse one.

That same day, Jesus went out of the house
and sat beside the sea,

and great crowds gathered around him,

so that he got into a boat and sat down.

And the whole crowd stood on the beach,
and he told them many things in parables.

Seen a sower went out to sow.

And as
he showed, some seed fell on the path,

and the birds came and devoured them.

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.

Other seed fell among thorns,
and the thorns grew up and choked them.

Other seeds fell on good soil and produced
grain some 100 fold, some 60, some 30.

Who has ears to hear? Let them hear.

So Jesus is

prior.

He's just talking to his his,
his closest disciples.

Now all these crowds come to hear him,

and he sitting down
and all these crowds show up is like,

there's no way
they're all going to hear me.

So he gets in the boat, pushes out
from the shore a little bit. Why?

Because there's an acoustic element
to water around him.

So it helps him, helps
it helps the volume so everybody can hear.

And the Bible says here
he sits down in the boat

and everybody stands on the seashore.

Just a just a little caveat for
you has nothing to do with the message.

But I just want to let you know
that this position of Jesus sitting

while he teaches
is the position of a rabbi.

In the first century Jerusalem, they sat
while they taught, they would stand

when they would preach and proclaim,
but they would sit when they would teach.

And so this is just the reason why I sit.

It's just my like, tip of the hat

to the first century rabbis
and how it was done.

When I preach and proclaim, it's
a lot of what Easter was, I was standing.

And so my time to teach this church is,
you know, I'm we're going to teach.

I'm going to teach. Okay.

So this this is the context that
the people are in with Jesus in this boat.

Just pushed out from shore a little bit
to better understand the parables.

There's
this there's this role of interpretation.

I want to teach you.

And it's called the exegetical constancy.

Exegetical constancy.

Everybody say
exegetical exegetical constancy.

This is really important to understand.

When we look at things like the parables,
what it means is this.

What something means over and over

and over never changes,
no matter how it used.

Like,

for instance, the birds.

Birds here in this parable,
the birds came and took the soil.

Birds throughout Scripture are in

this instance are always evil.

Bad bird, bad bird, bad bird.

It is all of a sudden turn to a good bird.

Do you understand?

And so when you just look at the idea

of birds in scripture,
typically these birds, these ravens.

Were,

it's always evil all throughout Scripture.

It never changes.

Doves are always good.

They're always a sign of the peace of God
in the Holy Spirit.

You understand?

A dove is never used in a bad content,

evil context
in Scripture, exegetical constancy.

Okay, so

usually when birds are used,
it's always evil.

Same thing with seed.

When the seed is used,
this is the word of God.

It's always the Word of God.

Whenever the farmers planting
seed, it's always the Word of God.

It never means anything other than that
exegetical constancy.

The world or the field.

Okay, the field is always the world,
or humanity always.

And that's really important to understand
as we go through these parables,

because Jesus is going to throw out
these stories next to real life.

They're real life experience.

Unless we understand
what some of these things always mean,

and we're going to get confused
on the point of it.

And I don't want you to be confused.

So this idea of exegetical constancy
is really important when it comes to

interpreting Scripture.

And so

that that's the
like he tells the parable of the sower.

Let me say this.

It's important to understand,

the idea of sowing

now, the idea of sowing in Scripture
as a farm.

From farmer's perspective,
that's the idea of planting seeds.

And so Jesus tells this parable

to help people understand
what the kingdom of God is like.

And he says,
A sower goes out and throws out seed.

Now, they didn't

they didn't do farming in their day
like we do in our day, in our day.

But what we do would prepare the soil.

We would make sure it's full of nutrients.

We would plow it all. We'd
make sure the seeds are planted.

We covering water? Not.

That's not how it worked back then.

Back then when a sower,
a farmer, went out to plant seed,

he had a big seed bag
and he had really good seed

and he would just throw the seed out
on the ground, just throw it everywhere.

Just everywhere.

And it would fall
on all four different types of soil.

And then after
they threw the seed out, then

they would go in till
and mix the seed into the soil.

And so that's how it was.

So this farmer's not being negligent
with his resources, not being wasteful.

That's just how they did it.

And as a result, that good seed fell
on a lot of different soils.

Do you follow okay.

So that that's his teaching and that's it.

He's done teaching.

And then the disciples come to him,

verse ten.

The disciples came to him, said,
why do you speak to them in parables?

He's like, okay, we

so so here's, here's the big idea.

I don't want you to miss this.

God isn't the variable in this parable.

My heart is.

The seed is not the variable.

The seed is constant.

The seed is good.

What is what? What?

The variable of the produce
is not to come from the seed.

It comes from the soil.

Do you understand?

Comes from my heart.

And so in essence,
the disciples were like, look,

if that's the point,
why don't you just say it like that?

Now? My imagination,

I imagine these disciples,
they're sitting with you.

They're hearing them teach.
All these people are around.

They don't want to look like
they don't get it.

And so like, oh yeah. Yeah. No.

Right on. Yeah. Preach that. Yeah, yeah.

We've been with them a long time.
We get it. Yeah.

And then when nobody's around.

Hey, let me ask you this.

What are you talking about? Right. Like.

And so they come and they're like,
why do you why do you speak in pairs?

Now look at what he says,

verse 11.

And then he answered them to you.

It has been given to know

the secrets of the kingdom of heaven,
but to them it's not been given.

For to the one who has more will be given.

And he who has,
and he will have an abundance.

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 seen

they do not see, and hearing
they do not hear, nor do they understand.

Pay attention to that word, understand.

We're going to come back to it,

and really get some understanding.

But that was important

indeed.

In their case, the prophecy of Isaiah
is fulfilled that says,

Now Isaiah,
he had some tough words for people.

And so Jesus is drawing on all this Old
Testament history, this Old Testament

prophet Isaiah. He said, let me tell you

what Isaiah was talking about,

because it's coming to fruition right now
in your midst.

And look at what I say. This is brutal.

You will indeed hear but never understand,
and you will indeed see,

but never perceive.

For this people's heart has grown dull,

and with their eyes they can barely,
or with their ears they can barely hear.

And their eyes they have closed,

lest they should see with their eyes,

and hear with their ears, and understand
with their heart and turn.

And I would heal them well.

But blessed are your eyes, for
they see, and 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, and to hear
what you hear and did not hear it.

So just as listen,
this is why I'm talking in parables,

because
they are not going to understand it.

Now that sounds really harsh,

but given what he's just said
in Matthew 12, verses

41 and 42, and what he said was this
if you don't remember from last week,

he said, those

who know and understand
and refuse to repent

come under more severe judgment than those
who don't understand and don't repent.

Both will be judged,
but the one who has understanding

and refuses
to repent, more severe judgment.

So what Jesus is saying is, listen,
they don't get it.

And rather than give them more light
for them to reject

and have more severe judgment.

I'm going to say it in a way
where they're not responsible.

That's pretty merciful in it,

Yeah. You're not being mean.

And so he says,

this is why he said some of them
they hear, but they don't hear.

They see, but they don't see.

Nor do they understand

that word understand is really important.

And one of the things
that that word understand

means.

Is they they don't put it together

like they've heard it all,

but they're not putting it together.

They're not
they're not investing the energy

and the effort to not just hear it
and not just see it,

but to take the time
and the energy to put it together.

And if they refuse to put it together,
that's on them.

But I'm not going to give them more light
to continue to ignore.

And reject.

Do you understand?

It's about putting it together.

He just got
done saying, you don't need more proof.

I've given you enough proof.

And the ultimate proof
is going to be the resurrection.

You don't need more proof.

You've heard it.

You've seen it.

You're going to take the time
to put it together. Now

that's what he's saying.

And so the question.

I are you putting this together?

What's going to be your response?

One of the greatest desires of my life.

Is by

the Holy Spirit's
power to be able to take this

and understand it and be able to cast it

in a way that makes sense.

So you'll understand it.

You get it.

It's greatest desire of my hearts,
my prayer.

Every day.

Whether you choose to take it

and to put your own work in it,
to understand it

and ask God through His Spirit
to give you understanding

that's on you.

The role of the Holy Spirit of God

is to sanctify God's people.

What sanctify means is to make us holy,
to make us obedient, to make us righteous.

That's the role of the Holy Spirit.

And the Bible says that the Holy Spirit
does that

through the Word of God.

We don't become more righteous

or holy or obedient
by showing up to church.

We do it by the Word of God.

That's why the church is so.

It's so important for the church
to proclaim and teach the Word of God,

because through this, the Holy Spirit uses
this that's been planted

in our soil.

To sanctify us.

One of the greatest prayers

you can pray after coming to Jesus.

Is father, by the power of your spirit.

Help me understand this word

and sanctify me through it.

Give me the desire to be obedient
and holy and righteous.

Help me put it together.

And Jesus uses these words.

He says this people,

their heart is going door.

That means it's grown fat and calloused.

It's just gone.

It's an unexercised
their hearts are unexercised

as far as my word is concerned.

He says they're they're ears.

They can barely hear.

In other words,
they're just hard of hearing.

They've heard it all.

They just refuse to hear it all.

They're hard of hearing. Do you get this?

As we say,

he said, their eyes.

They've closed.

They've chosen to
to turn a blind eye to the truth

of what I've given them.

So I teach them parables.

All they have to do is turn.

That's what he says.

And look at this.

In verse 15.

All they do is turn.

And I would hear them. That word turn.

I mean, all they got to do is turn around.

Turn your life around.

Repent.

If you just simply return
and turn your life around,

he says, I will heal you.

I don't know how you can be more clear.

But it doesn't happen.

Apart from the seed of the Word of God
being implanted and the Holy Spirit

given us his power to understand it,

to lead us to repentance, a desire

for holiness and sanctification
and righteousness.

Can you imagine what's at stake right now?

In your life?

Verse 18.

Here.

Then the parable of the sower says,
okay, let me explain to you.

Let me let me just help
you understand this one.

This is this is this is crazy.

Jesus usually doesn't explain
what the parables mean in these seven

chapter 13, he's
going to explain what the first two are.

He's going to he's going to say,
okay, here's the interpretation.

Here's what I'm talking about.

The rest of them, it's like, okay,
you got to you gotta work this one out.

Ask the
Holy Spirit to give you understanding,

because you're not going to stand apart
from the Holy Spirit.

And that's all his job is to help
you understand.

So you'll be sanctified.

But, but,
but they'll help you get started.

I'll explain it to you.

So? So this is what he does.

He explains it when anyone hears verse 19,

when anyone hears, the word
of the kingdom, it does not understand.

Remember that word understand
doesn't put it together.

The evil one comes and snatches away
what has been sown in his heart.

This is, This is what was sown along

the path.

The birds come and take it away.

The evil one.

Right.

And so what he's saying here

is those.

That's good.

See, there's nothing wrong with the seed,

but those who have received that seed

and don't put it together.

The evil one comes

and takes it away.

When?

When he uses that word, understand
it literally to help you

kind of get what he's saying.

It's like two combatants coming together.

What he's saying is this it's good seed

that's been planted in, in, in, in you.

But right now your life is in combat

with the kingdom of God.

Your life is in combat

with the rule
and reign of God over your life.

And as long as you're combatants
with each other, you'll never put this.

So the idea of putting it together
is saying it's in.

Quit combating with the rule
and reign of God and bring those together.

Do you understand?

And if that doesn't happen,

the devil just comes in.

You want to know why?

Sometimes people come to church
and the the seed.

Good.

They just walk out like.

Like my. I'm. Well, whatever.

Sunday.

Gotta get on with the rest of life.

Because they haven't surrendered yet

to the rule
and reign of God in their world.

And the moment is planted.

Boom! God.

That's one of the realities

of what happens when we

hear Scripture.

Listen, if you don't open up your ear,

if you don't open your heart

to the work of the Holy Spirit

that's speaking to you right now.

If you don't right now say, father,

give me understanding to your word.

I don't get it,
but I would need the power of you.

You, your spirit, to give me.

Help me understand this.

If. If that's

not your prayer and your desire,
what's being shown in you

right now is being taken away from you
right now by the evil one.

Do you have understanding?

You're putting this together.

So that's the first of the second one.

Is this.

As for what was shown on rocky ground,
this is the one who hears the word

and immediately receives it with with joy.

Yet he has no root in himself.

He endures for a while.

And when tribulation or persecution
arises on account of the word, immediately

he falls away.

He said the second group is like
its good seed,

and it's it's their.

And initially,

he hears it and immediately receives it
with terms like, oh, this is,

this is good stuff.

Like this.

Jesus saying, I like this, this is bad,
I get this, that's good.

You know, and they're excited about
they're probably young, you know,

because young people are so excited
like, oh, I love Jesus.

And he's my savior.

And I go to church
and there's there's excitement.

Enjoy there. Right.

Like they they they prayed the prayer
and they're like, oh, this is fantastic.

And it's great for a little bit.

But it's rocky underneath initially.

The heart's soft, but it's a hard heart.

And this was very typical
of the of the, of the ground

in Israel had a top layer
that was fantastic.

But under that there was a lot.

It's I don't know if you knew this, but
Israel's built on this huge rock shelf.

And so,

and so initially there's this, this good,

but most of it's rocky underneath

and it just can't penetrate the.

And that's what some hearts are like.

Like initially it's soft like,
oh I love the Lord.

And then.

And then their true heart revealed.

And it happens like this.

Yet it has no root.

And they endure for a while

that were for a while.

It means literally for a season.

There's a season.

And some of you
are you remember back in that season

when you first fell in love with Jesus,
you remember back in that season

near a young youth group all the time,

when you first come to face
or read your Bible

all the time, you remember that season.

You're like, this is great news.

How can I, how can I help?

How can I serve the church?

You remember that season

and it's great for a season.

But what happens is another season comes.

And when tribulation or persecution,

another season comes.

You know, the season
when I used to believe.

I used to trust.

I used to be a person of faith.

I used to follow.

But then the season of tribulation comes.

The season of trouble.

The season in your life of anguish,
the season

in your life of affliction.

Something bad happens.

Some season that you didn't see coming.

Some season that you convince yourself
it's not supposed to be this way.

If I'm following Jesus.

It's the season that hits the mess.

You go, well, if God is loving, then why?

If God is good, then why?

If God is sovereign,
then how could he allow?

And persecution on account of the word?

And let me tell you,

let me give a little understanding to that
persecution on account of the word.

It looks like this.

Well, the Bible says God is good
and the Bible says God is love.

And the Bible says God is sovereign.

And the Bible says,

I know the plans I have for you, declares
the Lord, plans for a future and a hope

not for destruction.

I know what the Bible says,
but my experience says

this and my experience says this,
and my experience says this.

And because of the word
and my experience, one of them isn't true.

To understand.

And most people,

rather than the word, says

because of persecution,
because of the word.

Those things just don't jive.

I follow a.

To fall away

means more literally to stumble, or an arm

to stumble away from or,
in our words, to deconstruct.

I know what the Bible says.

God loves me.

God is good.

He's sovereign.

His providence continues
to work all things together for good.

But my experience is something
other than that.

My experience
is something other than that.

My experience is something other
than that, at least how I feel about it.

And so I have to deconstruct
what I know of the Word of God

and come up with something different.

I have fallen and stumbled away.

There's nothing wrong with the seed.

Do you follow?

Do you understand?

Are you putting this together?

This is.

These are the four things that happen.

That's one and two.

And as a result, they fall away.

They stumble, they're deconstructed.

Verse 22.

After it was sown among the 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.

So the third one,

good seed shown on the soil.

But it's among thorns.

They hear the word,

but there's thorns along with it.

And Jesus describes the thorns

as the cares of the world,

the cares of the world.

What he's talking about here
is anxiety about life

and the cares about what the world values

the words there.

But because I care more about the world's

values than the kingdom
values rule and reign of God.

What is sown gets choked.

Do you understand?

What's shown is good,

but it's among thorns.

And those thorns.

Anxiety about life and my future.

Or because now, rather than staying true
to the values of the rule

and reign of the Kingdom of God, I care
more about the values of this world.

What's been sown starts to be get choked.

Now watch.

Because of the cares of the world

and the deceitfulness of riches.

The deceitfulness

of wealth and possessions and materialism.

Here's what he's saying.

He's saying that

this good seed has been sown

and it's starting to take root.

But we get.

Deceived

by what we think wealth will bring us.

Wealth will produce for us.

Wealth will protect us
from when we get deceived as to.

The satisfaction

that materialism will provide us.

And it chokes what God was doing.

Now watch this.

The deceitfulness.

Don't be fooled by this.

Some are so delusional about wealth,

about what they think wealth brings

or what they think
wealth protects them from, or what

they think wealth will produce in them joy
and happiness.

If I just had a little bit more,

Reason

why is credit card
debt is rampant in our country

is because people have been delusion
about wealth.

They're delusional.

Now watch this.

The very things that we pray for
and work for and plan for

are the very things
that can destroy our soul.

Do you see this?

The very things.

Most people spend their lives

working to gain and to get,

so they can get to the end of

their life and be comfortable and at ease.

And all the wealth, the deceitfulness
and the disillusion of wealth is choking

what God has planted in them.

The very things we pray for,

the very things we work for,
the very things

we set aside, retirement for others
very things

we think we're experiencing
God's favor and blessing.

And we may will be,
but they're the very things that left

unchecked choke
what God could be doing and producing

in our lives.

Well, people got nothing.

I'm telling you, they are here.

And the moment prosperity comes,

I forgot time

and get really stingy.

And most of us work

and pray for this stuff
when they look at God's favor on me.

And all the while, all we're doing

is amassing and perpetuating
that the very things that choke

what it is he would be doing.

Do you ever see this?

And that word choke.

Choke it out.

It means to suffocate it.

It you just it just suffocate it.

Slowly, slowly, slowly. Here's the truth.

We don't usually lose our faith overnight.

We slowly suffocate it.

And some people have amassed
so much around their lives,

they have slowly suffocated the rule
and reign of God

over their stuff.

So you most don't usually walk away
from God immediately.

Suddenly
they just get distracted from him.

And they use his blessings
as excuses to ignore

his rule and his reign.

And just as they become unfruitful,
they don't produce what they should

produce for the Kingdom of God based on
what God has implanted in their lives.

They just don't.

You know, I was thinking about these these
especially these three parables

this week, and I thought, you know,
probably nobody in these three parables,

none of these three realized
how far from God they were,

especially the ones who were the blessed
ones,

probably had no concept of how far from
God in the heart of the father they were,

because, after all, they're blessed right?

If I'm blessed, I got to be close to God.

His favor has got to be on me.

They probably have no idea
how far from God they were.

They probably thought, well,
I look just like everybody else at church.

It's all good.

I'm not too far off.

Oh, my friends,

without careful consideration.

And investigation of your own life,

we will always be ignorant
how fruitful we are or not.

If the Word of God that's

been sown in us is truly effective.

With every ounce of my being,
I want to encourage you.

Pray,

pray, pray, pray

that the Spirit of God,
the Holy Spirit, would give

you understanding to His Word

that would lead you to repentance

and allegiance

to the Kingdom of God above all else.

Pray that the Holy Spirit

enlightens your heart
to understand his words, that by His Word

you will be sanctified, holy,
and righteous.

The way the Holy Spirit works on us

to sanctifies, to make us into
the image of Christ is through His Word.

And also we have the power of the spirit
to help us understand, to put it together,

it'll be stolen away or choked out.

And then Jesus said

in verse 23.

As for what was sown in good soil,

this is the one who hears the word
and understands it.

Remember and understand,

puts it together. Now.

He indeed bears fruit and yields
in one case

100 fold, and another 60, and another 30.

The normal production of the seed
was 8 to 1.

With Jesus Kingdom math

30 to 1, 61 101.

And so let me just leave.

Let me leave us with a few questions.

Which soil of those four

currently represents your heart?

Without intentional

investigation of our hearts, we will be

ignorant.

As to what's going on right now.

And so, friends, please

ask yourselves
what soil currently represents

your heart.

Second question is this

am I producing 30 to 1, 61 or

101 of the kingdom produce
from what God has implanted in me?

And apparently, according to God's math,

if the Holy Spirit isn't through us

producing 30, 60 to 100 fold.

We must be part of the first three soils.

Third question
what are you doing to fertilize

good soil so that you produce 30 times,
six times a hundred times what?

What's.

You have authority

over the soil of your heart.

What are you doing to fertilize that?

The sanctification, our sanctification

that even the desire to live a holy life,
a righteous life and obedient life

comes from the Holy Spirit
through the Word of God.

It doesn't happen.

Apart from this, the seed that's sown,

I read it.

I am part of Bible studies about it.

I listen to music about it.

I don't care what your favorite music is,

if it isn't in the Word of God music,
it's going to choke something out.

If you follow.

So. Which of the four soils.

Won't you pray with me?

Father, your word is alive and active

and it is piercing.

And it's especially piercing
for those of us

who desire to understand.

And for those in this place.

For those who hear my voice,
who desire to understand, I pray.

By the power of your spirit,
you will grant understanding

that leads to repentance

and in repentance,
that you would give all that

your grace would allow.

As they pledge their allegiance to you

and your Kingdom rule.

Guys, I'm not talking about
just stay in this moment of prayer for me.

Just listen to me.

I'm not talking about inviting Jesus
into your life to be your guest.

He does not want to
be the guest of your heart.

He wants to violently take it

over as a hostile takeover.

It's not a pleasant, kind invitation.

It is a hostile takeover
where he wants to destroy everything

of this world.

And create an entirely new life.

And I charge you in the name of Jesus.

Say, father, I admit I'm a sinner.

I've lived life on my own terms.

I believe that Jesus died on the cross

so I could have a way to be made
right with you.

Not based on what I do,

but based on what he's done.

I believe he was raised from the grave

and is alive today.

Saved me by that faith.

And here's the hostile takeover part.

You got to get to this part.

I commit to turn from my sin.

My habits,

my addictions.

The stuff I harbor in my heart,

I commit to turn from all of it.

And I dedicate my life.

And I dedicate my allegiance to you
and you alone.

Tell him. See.

Empower me to love you with my whole heart
and soul and mind and strength,

without delay and without hesitation.

Fill me with your power

and the power of your spirit

to live a holy life.

Father, I thank you

that you have loved us
with an everlasting love.

That nothing we could do or not
do would separate us from that love.

But I pray

by the power of the Holy Spirit, that
you would help us understand that love

and give ourselves fully to you.

Protect us from the evil
one, from still, in a word way,

protect us from ourselves,

from letting it get choked out.

Give us, by the power of your spirit.

The power and the strength

sanctify us to be obedient

and holy and righteous.

The image of your son in this world.

In your name I pray Jesus.

Amen.

Church, I love you.

I'm proud of you.

I said we were going through
Matthew earlier.

I said, Jesus just keeps putting
the throttle down right?

Like he doesn't let up and it's good.

And so we're going
to keep pressing through this.

So here's my ask.

Read Matthew 13 the whole chapter
over and over and over this week.

Some of these parables
you'll get like, yeah, I got it.

Others want me to like what I.

But let it live inside you.

Let it bubble up.

It's by the Word of God that
the Holy Spirit's going to sanctify you.

And we'll talk about it next week.

You got it. This thing.