August 28, 2026 Elder Danny Wisner - "The Parable of the Sower"

We're gonna ask Elder Danny Wisner if he would come and speak for us tonight.

Well, I love you very much.

I'm just glad you're here.

We we continue to credit for it.

Come on.

Very thankful to be here this evening.

Uh was happy to get the invitation.

Uh I don't take it for granted, y'all coming out on a Friday night.

I know we all work and we got the things of this world to tie us down, cares of the world.

It means a lot for people to come out and worship on a Friday night and for a fifth uh Sunday weekend meet.

Uh as I was sitting on the front pew and I was looking at what time it was, I was reminded of a time we were here at the association.

It was years ago, probably 15 years ago, I don't remember.

And I was sitting right over here with a dear brother that I traveled with, and I forgot my watch.

And uh came over Saturday morning, somebody told me I was gonna be going up.

And uh I looked over at the brother I was traveling with.

I said, I said, Can I borrow your watch?

He said, Sure.

And brother Mark, he just took it off like it was a$2 watch.

And he handed it to me, and I was about to put it on.

I looked at it and it said, Rolex.

And I handed it back to him.

I said, I'm too clumsy.

You take this back, brother.

So we just gonna wing it.

So uh uh, but y'all pray for us this evening.

I I couldn't help but think about that coming up.

Um please pray for us that the Lord have blessed us in our attempts to to talk about him.

You know, that's a that's an amazing thing uh in the Psalms that talks about that we are dust, right?

That the Lord remembers our frame, that we are dust.

And I'm just a big old piece of dust trying to talk about the Lord.

I mean, that's wow.

And I can't do that without the Lord.

If you have your Bibles with you, let's go to Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

Usually, whenever I come to a church that I hadn't ever been to or hadn't been to in a long time, I I really like to preach on grace.

I really like to just, you know, say, yay in Jesus, right?

Yay in the blood of Christ.

But this isn't necessarily one of those sermons this evening.

This this has grabbed a hold of me for about two weeks, and I just can't let it go, and that's all I had tonight.

And uh uh so please pray for us because I I I tried to get out of it.

I I really wanted to get a blood of Jesus or uh just to motivate us, encourage us on a Friday night, but we're on a Matthew 13 parable of the sower this evening.

So please pray for us.

Over in Matthew chapter 13, we'll just start off in verse 1.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

It says, The same day went Jesus uh out of the house and sat by the seaside, and great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship and sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow.

And uh what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna read the first nine verses to us, and then we're gonna skip on down to the 18th verse, and we're gonna get to the Lord's ex uh explanation of the parable of the sower.

But the sowing that he's talking about here, from my understanding, is not like row sewing.

It's not uh somebody taking a plow and just plowing rows, it's them just breaking up a big plot of ground.

And the and and I've done this with uh deer hunting and whatnot, to where uh my daddy would take the tractor and just plow up, you know, he wouldn't get in a row.

He'd just plow up a bunch of ground and they'd hand me a sack of seed, you know, I'd put around my neck, and it has a pouch right here, and I'd just walk out there and I'd just throw it.

And that's to my understanding, that's what this is.

This isn't row sewing, this is just throwing sewing, right?

He's just throwing.

That's why some lands by the wayside, some lands on stalling ground.

If it was row sewing, you'd be putting it there in the row, right?

I mean, you'd be making sure it got where it's supposed to be.

But this is casting.

And let me tell you, uh if a minister doesn't know this, he's gonna learn this.

And y'all have learned this, I'm sure you have.

We don't get out there with our rifle shooting at folks, right?

This sermon's for Brother Josh.

This is for brother Martin, this is for brother Mike.

No, we what do we do?

We throw.

I don't know where it's gonna land.

I don't know whose hearts is gonna hit.

I'm just throwing.

I'm just preaching the word.

I'm just sending the message out there.

You know, there's sometimes, I don't know if y'all ever had the opportunity to preach to Brother Tom Griffin.

Sometimes I'm throwing the message out there, and Brother Tom, it looks like that ain't hitting him at all.

I mean, I mean, he's just sitting there like, and I'm and I'm like, do you even love Jesus?

You know, and he'll come around in the handshake, but Brother Danny, I man, that just hit me right here.

I didn't even realize it.

It hit him, and I didn't even know.

You know what I'm doing?

You preach that, brother.

He's just I'm like, do you even want to be here?

But my my whole point, I as a young preacher, there were times that I had my rifle out, and I'm gonna tell you, it backfires on you.

You're like, I'm gonna quit doing that.

The Lord knows what people need, I don't, right?

And uh uh, but but but this man's gonna he's gonna throw some seed out.

And it and it says, and he spake, and the fourth verse it says, talking about that sower.

When he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up.

Some fell upon stony places where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprung up because they had no deepness of earth.

And then it says, When the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away, and some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked them out, but others fell into good ground and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

So I I want you to picture the four different types of soil, the four different types of ground we're gonna have here.

So, like whenever my daddy would take that tractor and he would run over, uh uh there there's a place that he didn't run over, right?

There's always a boundary, right?

And and that's the wayside.

That hadn't been chopped up to where the seed can get down.

It's the wayside there.

And uh where where my daddy would go uh with his tractor is usually already green there because where the place where we would hunt is my uncle would lay would uh lease out the land to a cotton farmer during you know cotton season and everything.

And then after he harvested his stuff, then we'd go out there and we'd chop up the land and throw our uh rye grass or whatever we were trying to attract the deer with.

So so my whole point is the the waste I would already have probably have some greenery there uh uh that that daddy hadn't chopped up with the tractor.

So that's the waste side, it hadn't been chopped up.

And then you got the stony places.

So, so so just picture over here where the dirt has been uh plowed up, if you will, but there's still maybe some big claws, or there's still some stones there.

And then you got over here where the thorns are, and then you got over here where it's just chopped up real good.

That's the good ground.

That's the four different soils that we're gonna be dealing with this evening.

And then we skip on down to where the Lord tells us about the parable of the sower.

He he explains it to us.

In the 18th verse, he says, Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.

And this, I'm gonna tell you, Brother Josh, this really hit with me hard the other day when I was looking at this.

It says, When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, this is the word of the kingdom.

Brothers and sisters, sometimes we just like, oh, we gotta go to church.

Brother sisters, we have an opportunity to enter into the kingdom of God.

I don't know, I do know.

I do know that y'all believe exactly what I believe.

When a man is blessed by God to preach, it's what the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven that came from God given to the man, and you're blessed to hear it.

I'm gonna tell you, have you ever been in church and you just felt free?

You know what you know what uh Paul calls that?

He says where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty.

Have you ever been to church?

You need that lesson.

You know where the community is God, and when you start the Protestants where Paul says where the spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty, and the Lord is that spirit.

I want you to understand that you've ever been to church and you're speaking the stomach when you're praising Jesus and you feel the Holy Ghost, good sponsor.

Brothers and sisters, that's sentimentality that is nostalgic, that's God.

That's Jesus coming down from heaven, you know what?

Because this is the kingdom of God.

It means God resides here.

Brothers and sisters, we're going out to meet Jesus.

Not in a get-born-again way, but in a spending time with our husband and in our Savior way.

And this, he says, when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom, I'm going to tell you, I I love it when people are like Lydia brought a woman from our community to, a sister, I call her a sister.

She hadn't, she didn't join the church, but I seen fruits in her life.

But she brought a sister in our community.

Uh, she traveled an hour and a half or three-hour round trip with Lydia to go here, Brother Ronald Lawrence one night.

And and she went up to Brother Ronald, she said, Everything you said, I felt right here.

Don't you love that?

I felt right.

It ain't here.

I mean, it's gotta be here, but it's here too.

It's here too.

And I'm gonna tell you that goes beyond words.

That's the Spirit of God showing up.

It says, when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not.

Now, I want y'all to get this.

I'm just gonna tell you what I believe about this.

All four of these grounds are children of God.

And and I'm gonna tell you, there are many lessons from this that you can draw from this.

And and one of them, as a preacher, I think to encourage us, Brother Josh, is the majority of the people didn't have the correct response.

70, and say, how is that encouraging, Brother Danny?

Because I'm gonna tell you, I preach the gospel at church, I preach it at work.

Man, Lydia was inviting people to church during the first month of COVID up in Indiana.

We had visitors the first month of COVID in Indiana.

I mean, I love that.

You know, I mean, I know that she doesn't preach the gospel from the pulpit, but but but brothers and sisters, we we spread the word.

You know, we we we it says be ready to give an answer of the hope that you have in you.

If somebody's asking you about your hope, they gotta see the hope.

That whenever things aren't going your way, you're still acting like you believe you're going somewhere majestic, eternal, glorious, uncorruptible.

But I preach the gospel.

I preach the I used to preach, I used to hold service at the hospital I worked at four times a week.

Nobody ever came to church.

But they would say, man, I really like high gearing messages and courage instead of discourage.

I'm like, really?

Isn't that what it's supposed to do?

Aren't we supposed to be edifying?

That's right.

And I I mean, and they would tell me stuff like that, and I and I was like, they're gonna come, they're gonna come.

They didn't come.

But but sometimes you need to know the majority of the people that the that the seed gets sown to for whatever reason.

And it's one of these reasons.

Fruit don't come to fruition.

Doesn't mean they ain't children of God.

It means they're going through one of these seasons in life.

And guess what?

As a preacher, sometimes, sometimes as a preacher, I'm the wayside.

That's right.

Sometimes I'm the stony ground.

Sometimes I'm the thorny place.

Because I want you to understand what it says about the what it says about the wayside.

It says when they heard the word, they understood it not.

Some people want to preach this as three went to heaven, one uh three didn't go to heaven, one did.

Brothers and sisters, let me ask you a really honest question.

Have you ever been to church and didn't understand it?

You're the wayside.

Right.

Then the second one is the stony ground.

And it and it says that they heard it and ateing with joy.

Means immediately with joy.

They were like, woo, yeah.

And then some bad stuff happened to them, and they fell away.

Has that ever happened to you?

You ever been to church and you're like, man, this is gonna be this week?

This is gonna be the this is the new week.

This is the new Danny.

This is the new y'all, y'all been there, haven't you?

You yeah, maybe you went to a three-day meeting, or maybe the Lord just really blessed Brother Josh, or or just maybe you've been having a really good study that week, a really good prayer life, and you're like, this is it.

And then something just happens.

You find out somebody got cancer, somebody dies, somebody says something bad about you.

And that week was not the new week.

Y'all ever been there?

That's the stony ground.

And then that thorny ground, you know what that is?

That's the cares of the world.

You ever said, you know what?

I'm just gonna devote more time to the Lord.

I'm just gonna be a better person.

But those cares of the world, that overtime, those ball games, putting things before the Lord, they were getting your way.

That's the cares of the world.

Brothers and sisters, can't you say that you've had it where you've been in church and didn't understand?

Stony ground, that's you.

Can't you say that you were so happy to be there?

You were so happy to be here to hear that message.

And you said the new leaf is getting turned over, but you fell away.

Stony ground, that's you, that's me.

And then haven't we seen ourselves like I know I should do better?

But the things of the world just keep getting in the way.

Stony ground, that's me and you.

Brother Susan, we we we we need to identify.

We need to identify why we don't do what we should do, amen.

I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you, have you ever been to church?

But have you ever been to church?

And you're like, I don't understand what he said.

And you're like, but I'm gonna go look at it.

I'm gonna go look at it.

Maybe they maybe his text, some obscure text in Habakkuk or one of the Isaiahs that don't get mentioned much or something like that, and you're like, I'm I'm gonna go look at that.

I don't understand if I'm gonna look at it.

But then you don't go look at it.

And then you're and then you're like, well, I'll look at it tomorrow.

Then you wake up tomorrow and you're like, what was it?

You ever been there?

My whole life before I had an iPhone to write stuff down.

I mean, that was me.

You know, brother, brother Sonny's preaching so fast, and I'm like, okay, okay, I gotta I gotta go back and look at that.

And I forget what I was supposed to look at.

That's that's uh wait, sir.

Go with me here.

And the 19th verse, Matthew 13.

And by the way, I'll go ahead and tell you the remedy.

I never know how to preach on this.

You know, in my head, I'm like, I need to go here first, here.

Just trying to follow the spirit.

But the but the remedy to this, on all the three grounds that didn't bring the fruit to perfection, there, the remedy is found over in Hosea chapter 10.

Hosea 10 · chapter mention

Tell me real quick.

And I I'll tell you what, uh, with this new age, it's kind of like one time I was my my aunt, I was preaching, and I and I and I looked at my aunt, Sister Patricia, she was over there, she was like this really job.

And I was like, man, I must really be doing bad because she's praying for me a lot.

And on the way home, she was like, Brother Danny, I'm so sorry.

You know, we we woke up early this morning and and I I just couldn't stay awake.

I was like, Sister Pat, you told on yourself.

I thought she was praying for me.

Same thing.

If you're looking at your phone and church now, unless you tell on yourself, I'm gonna say they ain't texting, they're looking at the Bible.

Right?

That's right.

Uh uh I like that's one thing I do like about the phones.

There's a lot of things I don't like about the phone, but I like that I can just and I'm there and I don't have to go.

Yeah.

So over in Hosea 10, so don't tell me if you're not looking at your Bible.

You know, if I see you doing this, I'm just gonna assume that you're looking up the text.

Unless I don't move a page, I'm gonna be like, ugh.

But Hosea chapter 10, verse 12, look what it says here.

Hosea 10:12

This is the Lord talking.

He says, sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy.

Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord.

I like that.

Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord.

Y'all, I looked that word up in the in the Hebrew, that word fallow there, and it means untilable ground.

So it's supposed to be tilled, it's just untilled.

It's good ground.

You just gotta break it up.

And I'm gonna tell you what, we need to be breaking up our stony places.

We need to be breaking up our wayside.

We need to be breaking up those stony, those stony.

We need to get it out of our wow, and we just need to break it up.

Because here it says, break up the fallow ground.

Look, look, look, look what it says.

So to yourself in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord.

You must recognize you're you're you're the waste of God, but break the waste of.

Recognize you're the stone ground, break the stone ground up.

I'm gonna tell you that there is nothing, there is no time, there is no energy, there is nothing that you can do.

Um, give you to the food.

I'm gonna be getting let me talk about money, let me talk about houses, let me talk about the presence of God.

It's the presence of the spirit, the presence of our husband.

Don't you like spending time with your spouse?

I love it.

I know when I first got married, me and Lydia got married during COVID, and I'm a nurse, right?

And uh I know I'm not the only one in here.

But we got married during COVID, and I'd come home after a 16-hour shift because everybody was quitting.

And you know, and I'm watching people that I've been taking care of for years.

Yeah, I was working at a nurse home at the time, watching them not be here anymore.

And I mean, it's really depressing, Brother Mark.

And I'd come home and I mean I just needed to decompress.

And we've been married like two weeks, right?

And I come home and I sit on my old couch that she was has been trying to throw away ever since we got married.

We still got it.

Because she's sentimental, and I'm like, baby, I this is my study couch.

I sit right here, I put my coffee right here, put my Bible, and she's like, okay.

But but I come home and I 16 hours and I'm just like, I'm dead to the world.

And Lydia's like, how you doing?

What happened today?

Tell me all about your day.

Because we're we were nearly wedge.

And we just wanted to be around each other.

And you know what?

I love being near her, but I didn't want to talk.

She didn't want to handle it.

But you get my point.

I'm her husband.

She's my wife.

She just wanted to be next to me.

She just wanted to hear about what I experienced that day.

And I'm going to tell you, we're the bride of Christ.

And we need to be seeking the Lord.

Because I'm going to tell you, brothers and sisters, this is the truth.

Financially, I've been down and I've been up.

Me and my wife, right now, look, whenever I lived in Indiana, Brother Mark stayed with us up there one time.

But I had one bathroom.

And I was like, man, if I'm printing a badest preacher, I got to have more than one bathroom.

You know, I mean, if we're going to have all these people staying with us for a fellowship meeting and everything, I got to have more than one bathroom.

Then when we moved to Georgia, we had three-bedroom, three and a half bathroom.

Every bedroom had a bathroom.

And we got a swimming pool.

Man, I thought only millionaires had we got a swim.

Brothers and sisters, we go swimming in December.

Because we just like to swim, you know?

I mean, and but what I'm saying, I I you couldn't convince me that I didn't have seven million dollars in the bank when I had a swimming pool.

But you know what I found out?

I've been down here and I've been up here.

Financially.

If you're not up here and spending time with God and thinking about the Lord and getting close to God, it don't matter what house you live in.

It don't matter how many bathrooms you got.

It don't matter if you got a heated swimming pool for the wintertime.

Brothers and sisters, what we need more than any of that stuff, we just need to be close to Jesus.

That's right.

And I'm gonna tell you, this sermon ain't to you.

I ain't got my rifle out like you better break your fallow ground.

We need to break our fallow ground.

I'm gonna tell you, we're gonna be better husbands.

We're gonna be better pastors.

We're gonna be better church members.

We're gonna be better people.

Whenever we break up that fallow ground and thank the Lord, why are you gonna be fouled?

Matthew 13.

When anyone heareth, 19th verse.

When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one and catches away that which was sown in his heart.

I told you, the Lord blessed.

I was gonna show you how each one of these were children of God.

That right there shows you that this is a child of God.

Because that's guess where that word was sown in his heart.

Let me tell you, the word of God does not get into a goat's heart.

It gets into sheep's heart.

And then the wicked one comes and snatches away so it don't bring forth fruit.

If you're not born again, the devil don't have to take the preach word away from your heart to keep you from bringing forth fruit because the people who aren't born again can't bring forth fruit.

But it was sown in his heart.

Over there, this makes a big difference.

Over there in the end of Acts chapter 7, where Stephen was stoned to death, it says whenever he preached the gospel to them, it says they were cut to the heart.

Acts 7 · chapter mention

Whenever Peter preached the gospel and he baptized all those thousands of people in Acts chapter 2, it says they were pricked in the heart.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

There's a difference.

When something's in the heart, it got in there.

When it went to the heart, it didn't get in there.

Does that make sense?

So here, this is a little child of God.

And and I'll give you an example of this.

Look, and that's one thing I've been meditating upon is I think all preachers who believe that all four grounds of these are children of God will all say, this has been me and my lifetime, right?

But I like to go to the Bible to prove stuff.

I believe you can look at Peter's life and the other apostles and disciples' lives, and you can go through there and nitpick and you can say, this is the time where Peter was the wayside, or this is the time where Peter was the stony, or this is the time where Peter was the thony ground.

And I'm going to tell you, over in Matthew chapter 16, after Peter makes that great confession that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, over in the 20th verse, Jesus, over in the 20th 21st verse, Jesus tells them this.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

Call me over to Matthew 16, real, real, real quick, because I want you to understand this.

Over here in the stony ground or the wayside ground, it says the reason that the uh fruit is not brought to fruition or not brought to perfection is because the wicked one comes and snatches it away.

That's somebody who hears the word and doesn't understand it.

And so go me over to Matthew chapter 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

I want to show you Peter on the wayside ground.

Go me over to Matthew chapter 16, verse 21.

Matthew 16:21

From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go into Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day.

You know what Jesus just said?

Death ain't got no hold on me.

People hate me and they're gonna kill me, but guess what?

I'm gonna still live.

And you know what Peter said?

Be it not so, Lord.

Guess what?

He understood it not.

He understood it not.

You know why Jesus says they understand it not?

Because the wicked one, Satan, comes and snatches away.

What does Jesus say to Peter?

Get thee behind me what?

Satan.

Satan came and snatched away what Jesus said.

Isn't that beautiful how you can see?

You say, what's beautiful about that?

I'm just showing you, brother and sisters.

We need to understand.

There's a guy named Satan that hates you.

There's a guy named Satan, he hates you.

He does not want you, I know he's not a guy, I understand that, but he does not want you to have the joys of your salvation.

And he's a really good hunter.

I hate him, but you need to respect his game.

He's a really good hunter.

Whenever he sees your weakness, he's coming after you.

And you know how it says he walks by as a ruining mind, seeking whom he may devour?

My wife loves nature shows.

You know who the ruin hinds go after?

They go after the ones who have got separated from the herd.

Stay in the house of God.

Stay in church.

We need each other.

You're harder to get God whenever you're around your brothers and sisters.

So call me back over to Matthew 13.

Look what it says here.

But and and I'm not going to say the commentator's name because I don't want people to think I'm trying to alien people, alienate people who say his name or post his post or whatever.

But there's a very prominent dead Baptist commentator.

And I'm only bringing this up because I don't want children of God trusting in commentators.

I want you to trust in the Word of God.

And if you think you know what I'm talking about, go look me up and prove me wrong.

Whenever he speaks about the wayside ground and where it says that it was sown in their hearts, Brother Mark, he says this.

This is one of the most respected men.

He says this.

He says, it's not in the heart.

It says it's upon the heart.

He changed Jesus' words.

Jesus said in the heart.

But he understood what that meant.

He understood that if you say it's in the heart, then it got there because that's a child of God.

And then whenever he talks about the stony ground, having joy, because he understood that joy is a fruit of the Spirit, you know what he said?

That's not real joy.

Who told him that?

If Jesus says it's joy, you know what I'm going to say it is?

It's joy.

And I'm just telling you this: be careful what you read.

The only thing that you can read every time and believe what it says is the word of God.

I'm going to tell you if I'm reading after Mark Woods or Josh King or Mike Seals or whatever preacher, I'm going to think I'm pretty safe.

But if I know that it's against the word of God, it's against the word of God.

Then it says this.

Let me see what time it is.

I'll speed it up.

But he, the 20th verse, but he that receives seed into the stony places, this is probably me.

I'm just going to be real with you.

This is probably me most of the time.

It's like I go to church, I'm going to tell you, church is my place.

I love church.

I mean, I, brothers and sisters, whatever.

Before I met the Lord, I did every drug under the sun just to find fulfillment in life.

And I'm going to tell you the best feeling I've ever felt is being in the house of God.

Feeling the Holy Ghost come down from heaven.

Let me tell you, whenever Psalms 48 says that the church Mount Zion is the joy of the whole earth, I can testify to you it is.

Whenever we do it right, whenever we're putting Jesus first, and we're humbling ourselves, uh, and we're profiting our brothers and sisters above ourselves, and this is what we do is above Jesus and you come in, and you can just walk and do the jump, and stuff that you walk through the doors, you can just fill the hollows.

Whatever you just stop speaking about, and just fill those different lines.

Whatever the brother can stop the bridge, and you might have given up and stuff, and you might just message and strip it from the Lord, and then it's gonna make it bright, and it's gonna yummy of the hobby.

And you know what it's done! It's just beautiful for situation! I'll come to the church! Not brother, stuff like you're in a bad situation! Come to church now! It's beautiful for whatever situation you're in.

You said a brother in a hybrid room and you're situated in a hot place.

Yeah, I get that.

But also, I think you can apply to what situation you're going through in life.

If you're rich, it's still beautiful.

If you're poor, it's beautiful.

If you're black, it's beautiful.

If you're white, it's beautiful.

I'm gonna tell you to the house of God where you come and find God as a refuge and be beautiful for a situation and enjoy the whole earth.

And I'm gonna tell you how to go to me.

And I'm gonna be like, Lydia, we're gonna get those ten chapters today this week, sweetie.

We're gonna do it.

Lydia, we we we ain't gonna look at Facebook this week.

Lydia, we ain't gonna do this.

And I'm gonna tell you what, we're gonna make it out of Monday.

Y'all ever been there?

Have y'all ever said, I'm gonna quit scrolling?

How'd that turn out for you?

I'm still trying.

I'm still trying.

On the way here today, Lydia says, I hate Facebook.

I said, me too.

Why do we got it?

She said, I don't know.

Why, why?

Because I'm a sinner.

That's not an excuse, it just is.

Need to take the thing off my phone.

I'm just being stony.

But guess what?

When you see you being stony, what can we do?

We can break it up.

Break up that fallow ground.

Seek the Lord.

Lydia is like, man, I wish I was a preacher so I could confess all your sins.

She doesn't think that.

But I do feel sorry for her sometimes.

I'm like, me and Lydia, she's like, hey, you can just say me, right?

You can just say you.

Just keep me out of your messing up.

But look what this is right here.

It says, But he that received the sea into the stony places, the same as he that heareth the word and aiming with joy receiveth it.

He's like, Yeah.

I'm gonna tell you, brothers and sisters, I remember the first time I really, really, really believed in salvation by grace.

Now I was coming to church and I stayed because I seen the love.

That's why it's important for us to love people.

Right?

You got visitors coming?

I'm an introvert times a thousand.

Whenever I first started coming to church, I first started being liberated and ministry and exercising.

There was a preacher.

He's a friend of mine.

30 years my senior, maybe 20 years.

And yeah, he's 20 years my senior.

And he was trying to help you.

He was like, you need to get some self-help tape to help you open up to people.

I think the Lord took care of that, okay?

But because people tell people I'm an introvert, they're like, what?

I'm like, I don't act like that all the time.

It's just up there when the Holy Ghost comes in.

But but I'm I'm an introvert.

And the last thing I want to do, Brother Mark, is whenever a stranger comes in through those doors, is to be the first one to greet them.

But you know what?

If they're coming in here, they're seeking something.

The Lord is in their heart.

They're looking for Jesus.

That's my brother or sister in Christ.

I need to let them know they're want it.

And not only they want it, they're needed.

And I need to go meet them.

And I don't care if they're trying to make it to the car before anybody gets to them, I gotta cut them off.

That's whenever I become called.

You know, I mean, I'm getting out there.

I'm doing that to people.

I run out there and I and I and I and I say, hey, not trying to be rude.

But just want to let you know, thank you for coming.

And we're about to eat.

Y'all want to come eat?

Most times they say no and be like, man, I hope I hope y'all come back.

I hope y'all come back.

And that because that's what kept me around.

Is the love.

And and I felt to be such a sinner, and we'd have that handshake, and I didn't want to touch nobody's hand because I felt like that they would just see what a horrible person I was.

But I didn't I didn't understand predestination.

I didn't believe in election.

I didn't think it was fair, but the love is what kept bringing me back.

Because you know what?

I knew where I came from.

And I and I knew where I came from.

People didn't act like this.

I knew that these were God's people.

And I wanted to be around God's people.

And I remember very vividly, April of 2002, Brother Ricky Harprode preaching on a Friday night.

By grace you were saved.

And that not of yourselves.

It's not of works lest any man should boast.

And I'm going to tell you, he preached that in such a way, it just didn't come here, it came here.

And I'm going to tell you what, I was like, that's it.

That's it.

And and before then, I thought I was going to hell.

Because I knew that if words was in it, I couldn't do it.

And if my new belief was in it, I couldn't believe that an alumni.

I knew that heaven was not my home.

If it was the me, the rippy simple sinners.

You know what I'm writing symptom?

Because big syndicate.

And then since I'm a wicked symbol, that is not myself.

And I'm like, yes!

Hallelujah.

That's how I get in.

You know what?

So coming to church, being that seed on the stone, that sprouts up, that's easy for me.

Because I do get happy.

I do get excited in the Lord.

I do love to hear the gospel message.

You know what the gospel message is called?

The glorious gospel.

Man, that makes me sprout up.

But you know what?

I want to do more than sprout up.

It says the reason, the reason that it withered away whenever the sun came out, because it had no root.

It didn't break up that fall of ground.

I want to be rooted.

I want to be rooted.

Then whenever I go to church, whenever we have a good experience, like I just know we are this weekend.

And I've already enjoyed getting a visit with Brother Josh.

I can't wait to visit with his family.

And and just feel that camaraderie of brothers and sisters in Christ.

Of course, he's not sister, but the rest of his family.

Not trying to be funny, but I was talking to him.

But brothers and sisters, there is just something there.

There's just something there.

Whenever you had that fellowship.

And whenever me and Lydia drive back to Georgia and we say we want to be better.

I just don't want us to be better.

I just don't want us to want to be better.

I want us to get better.

I don't want us to wither out Monday.

I don't want us to get scorched out on Tuesday.

I want us to endure.

Not so that we can go to heaven, but just so we can let our light shine.

And you know what?

I told you I was going to try to show you examples of Peter and all of these.

I'm about to start wrapping it up.

I see what time.

But y'all remember when Peter was on the boat during the storm and they were scared.

By the way, y'all know when that storm came?

Right after Jesus did one of the greatest miracles.

He fed 5,000 people.

At least 5,000.

Not counting women and children, meaning it was there might have been 20,000.

But I know it was 5,000 there.

With enough with with with all the food that he fed them with could fit right here.

Five loaves and two small fishes.

You know what?

I I did a research one time to look up what type of fish is in the Sea of Galilee.

Tilapia?

Catfish?

And sardine.

And you know what?

They're Jews.

They couldn't eat catfish.

So you either got tilapia or sardine.

I don't necessarily think of tilapia as a small fish.

Now I'm not telling you this, this is gospel truth, but wouldn't that just be more magnificent of the way Jesus does stuff?

Is if those two small fishes were sardines.

And you know what?

It said there's a lad here with five loaves and two small fishes.

You know, because I because I used to think when I first started reading the Bible, I was like, you know, because you're because your natural mind wants to fight against spiritual things.

Have y'all ever been there?

And my natural mind is like, oh, that must have been really big loaves.

But but they were five small enough for a little lad to carry them around in a basket.

I love the word of God, how just little things can take away your diet like that.

But over there, what I want you to understand, those disciples went through that storm after they seen one of the greatest miracles.

Brothers and sisters, don't you see Satan coming at you whenever you have a really good church meeting?

Whenever things are really going good in your life.

Look, there was something happened to me three years ago.

I remember I was at work of all places, and it was one of the best days I've had in my life.

I just felt the Lord with me, Brother Mark.

I was walking to go get a patient to bring him back to a room, and I just felt like I was walking on a cloud.

I just like, I just felt God with me.

And then I got a text, and it just I just remembered the next year, my life was a battle with Satan.

Because of that one tax that I got whenever I felt like I was on cloud nine.

I'm going to tell you, there's a reason you feel attacked whenever you feel like the Lord is with you.

Because Satan does not want you to be joyous.

He hates you.

And I'm going to tell you, they were on the mountaintop and they seen this great miracle, and then they went through a storm.

And then guess what they seen during the storm?

They were in a ship.

They were scared.

They were tossed to and fro.

And they seen Jesus.

And he says, Be not afraid.

Be a good cheer.

And I love Peter.

Peter right here is the stony ground.

Peter goes, Lord, if it's you.

Come.

And Jesus says, Come.

And I know in John 21, where Jesus standing up, when Peter standing with Jesus, he threw himself in the water.

I got to stand up with Peter here.

Again, I'm not saying that's the way it is, but I just see that because Peter was very impulsive.

I can just see him just jumping out of the ship when Jesus said, Come, I can just see him like, hear him.

And he's like, I'm walking on water.

I mean, can't you see that?

Like, like he's just there.

Hearing Jesus are woke in the water.

But then guess what?

He sees the waves, he sees the wind, he sees the storm, and guess what happens?

He was joyous.

He's like, man, if Jesus can walk on water, I can walk on water.

And then he paid attention to that storm that was there the whole time.

Do y'all get that?

Whenever Peter started walking on water, the storm was already going on.

Nothing new happened.

It was just what he was looking at.

That's why the Bible says that these light afflictions are butt for a moment while we look.

Man, don't look at your afflictions, don't look at your foes, don't look at your face, look at your Jesus.

And he was walking on that water.

But whenever he started looking at his troubles, whenever he started looking at his trials, he started sinking.

That was him on that stony ground.

He sprouted up.

But in that day he didn't have any root in him.

He withered away.

Can y'all see that?

And then we get to the one that I'm going to tell you America has to deal with a lot.

The cares of this world.

The thorny ground.

Go with me here.

And the 22nd verse, and I know I didn't go through that real well, but kind of pressed for time.

I apologize.

In the 22nd verse, he says, He also that receives seed among thorns is he that heareth the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becometh unfruitful.

That makes me seem like there is probably some fruit already there.

If he becometh unfruitful, if he becometh unfruitful, he was already fruitful.

But the deceitfulness of riches, it says that the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becometh unfruitful.

There's a lot of cares of this world.

I mean it's not just deceitfulness of riches.

It's just so much.

You know, I one I got of Peter on this one is y'all, y'all, y'all, y'all remember Peter was the first apostle to preach to the Gentiles?

Because God showed him a special revelation to say you should call no man common or unclean?

Just by your race, by your nationality, by your heritage, by your lineage, you're no worse than anybody else.

Remember, God showed him that.

And because of that, he went and preached to the Gentiles.

So if anybody knew that a Jew shouldn't segregate himself from a Gentile, it was Peter, right?

But over in Acts chapter 2, Paul talks about a time where Peter was eating with the Gentiles, but then the Jews came in who didn't think that was okay, and they seen Peter eating with the Gentiles.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

So because Peter cared, cares of the world, because Peter cared about what other people thought about him, Paul says he didn't walk orderly to the gospel.

Peter, if anybody knew that that was okay, Peter knew it.

But because he cared about what other people thought, he disobeyed the gospel.

He separated himself.

And Paul said, because Peter did that, he withstood Peter to the face.

I'm going to tell you, brothers and sisters, I want to humble myself to my brothers and sisters in Christ.

But I don't want to be disobedient to God because I care about what other people think.

That's right.

You understand that?

Whenever I first met the Lord and I started trying to live my life, getting closer to the Lord, I worked at a prison and people could bring their reading material.

We worked at night, and you could bring your reading material in to read at night sometimes.

And people were bringing their magazines and this and that.

You know what I brought?

I brought my Bible.

But because we worked in a prison, you couldn't bring in a sack, right?

So you know what I did?

I covered it up in a magazine.

Why?

Why would I deny my Lord like that?

He died for me.

And I can't walk into a prison holding a Bible.

What is wrong with me?

Because I cared about what other people thought.

I'm gonna tell you primitive Baptist.

We understand that pride is bad, amen?

But sometimes that's been preached to us so much that we want to look humble instead of be humble.

The main humility that we need to be to is God.

And sometimes us humbling ourselves to God, we gotta stand up to people.

That's right.

You know what I'm saying?

Sometimes it happens like that.

But guess what?

If I ain't got to stand up to somebody, I don't want to stand up.

I mean, I it says as much as in you is like live peacefully among all men.

That's just for free, okay?

Let's move on here.

But the cares of this world.

You know, I remember the first time I heard Brother Martin O'Yani from Africa preach.

He preached in Five Mile Church in uh Marvinville, Alabama.

And I remember he got behind the pulpit and he said, Let's see, Kenya.

It's praying for you.

And at that time, Brother Martin ate once every three days.

Something called porridge.

And what it was is hot water and cornmeal.

That ain't porridge.

That's uncooked cornbread.

You know what I'm saying?

Not even good cornbread, just water and meal.

And this man, like I ate three, four times a day, and he ate once every three days.

And this man said he's praying for us.

And years later, Brother Martin was staying with me and Liddy, and I asked him, I said, Brother Martin, I said, Do you remember whenever you came to find all that time?

He said, Yes.

And I said, uh I said, I remember you said this, and that's always stuck with me.

Did you mean because we have all this stuff to keep us from seeking after God?

Did you mean that that was the reason y'all were praying for us?

He said, Oh, Brother Danny.

He didn't answer, but I but he did answer.

You know what I'm saying?

But that's what he meant.

You know what they got in Africa, cares of the world?

I asked Brother Martin.

I said, uh he was with us last year, I think it was.

I said, I said, Brother Martin, I said, we got Facebook, we got this, we got that, keep us from seeking after the Lord.

What what keeps the Kenyan man from seeking out the Lord?

He said, Well, we have no jobs.

So the husbands have to go, we we live in villages, so the husbands have to go to the city miles and miles away.

And that's what keeps them from following the Lord.

I'm like, what keeps me from following the Lord is my Facebook page.

What keeps them from following the Lord is providing for their family.

You know?

That really stuck with me.

He's like, I mean that that he understood, he's praying for me because he understands I got LSU football and New Orleans Saints and and and my my child's playing softball and karate and gymnastics and this and that.

I got all this stuff keeping me from seeking after the Lord.

And he sees that and he's like, we're praying for you.

You know what that is?

That's thorns.

And y'all know what thorns do?

They grab a hold of you.

Is there some thorns in mind in your lives that's grabbed a hold of us?

That keep us from breaking up that fallow ground?

That keep us from getting closer to the Lord?

Yeah, it is in my life.

But let me tell y'all something.

I want to obey Hosea 10 and 12, where it says, break up your fallow ground and seek after the Lord.

How do you do that?

How do you break up that fallow ground?

You know what we do?

We pray more.

We seek ye first the kingdom of God.

We wake up in the morning and we pray to our great God who saved us from our horrible sins.

Amen.

And we make, do y'all make time to eat breakfast in the morning?

The Bible says you shall not eat, you shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedet out of the mouth of God.

Do we make time to eat breakfast in the morning?

Do we make time to make sure we brush our teeth so our breath don't stink?

Do we make time to make sure we're making our coffee?

And do it, do we make sure we got the creamer we like?

We got the coffee we like?

Do we make time that we got our makeup fixed up?

Or I mean, do we make time for all these other things?

Why not if we're supposed to be seeking first the kingdom of God?

Why don't we make time for Him?

And I'm gonna tell you, brothers and sisters, you wouldn't believe how much of a difference just making sure we pray to God on a daily basis when you wake up in the morning, when you go to bed at night, how much a difference it makes in your life to make sure you're reading the Word of God every day.

I'm gonna tell you, brothers and sisters, we're taking in so much stuff in this world and we don't even realize how much we're being conformed to this world.

We need to transform our mind by renewing it with the word of God.

And I'll I'll I'll give you this and sit down.

One of the things I've done this year, and if I know there's recording this stuff now.

If you've heard this on recording and you think I'm bragging, I'm not bragging.

I just want to I want a habit that I finally got found that's good.

I got a lot of bad habits, brother Mike.

I finally found one that's good.

I wanted to rub off on you.

I always heard people talk about reading a proverb every day to where you read the book of Proverbs once a month.

And you do that every month, and by the time you get to the end of the year, you read the book of Proverbs twelve times.

Because it's the book of wisdom.

We need wisdom, don't we?

And I've done that this year, and like February 28th, I read three Proverbs, right?

April the 30th, I read two Proverbs, right?

But I'm just making sure I get through it in a month.

And every morning when I wake up, I read a chapter out of the book of wisdom.

Because I want to be wiser.

I don't want to be wise in the things of this world.

I want to be wise in God.

And I'm gonna tell you, you wouldn't believe.

I'm like, man, I wish I had known this when I was 16.

It talks about the strange woman, talks about the ungodly woman.

Get your boys to be reading about her and get your girls to read about her, but say the strange man instead of the strange woman.

I'm gonna tell you, there are young ladies and young men, there are young people out there that are pursuing righteous people in a bad way.

Right.

And they find sport to make you get off the straight and narrow.

That's their sport, that's their hobby.

That's how they have fun.

Look what I did.

And then Proverbs tells you that.

You know what Proverbs also says?

Keep your mouth shut.

It says, have y'all ever slandered anybody?

Proverbs 10 and 18 and 19 kicks my tail.

It says, fools slander folks.

And then it says, in the in the multitude of words, it lacketh not sin.

Well, every time we slander somebody, we're being a fool.

I'm a fool.

And guess what?

Every time we just talk, talk, talk, talk, there's sin that's going on.

I'm gonna tell you, if you if you want somewhere to start to break up that foul of ground, get you a priva every day.

Thank y'all.

I know I went over time.

I love y'all.

One of the reasons I went over time, y'all been paying attention.

It's your fault.

God bless.

I love you, brother.

I'm sorry.

Lord bless you.

I bless you.

Brother Danny, do not apologize for the time.

Brothers and sisters, um, and I won't take up more of your time, but I do want to say one thing.

The uh one of the things Brother Danny reminded me of is that by the way, um I appreciate Brother Danny, and sometimes when we I hadn't talked to this brother in years, and we had a long conversation a week or two weeks ago, and I remember why I loved him so much.

That uh aren't you thankful that uh he just speaks the truth and just lays it out there.

Oh Brother Danny, thank you for being vulnerable.

Have y'all ever uh you know, sometimes uh we as preachers want to put on a good face.

Sometimes as people we want to do that, right?

I want everybody to see me looking my best, talking my best, acting my best.

And and Brother Danny, we don't think less of you.

I think more of you that you just you just tell us how it is in your own life and in the world.

In other words, there's no falsehood there.

Oh aren't you thankful that we have men that are willing to proclaim the truth and not hold back?

To be exposed.

The man who is a said he's an introvert, but yet he's literally willing to open up his life like a book, to say, hey, I'm I'm messed up here, I'm messed up there.

The Lord just did this in me here and did this.

Aren't you thankful that there are men in the world?

You know, I I I wondered to myself one time about the lady, why in the world does the Lord call men like me?

Like you, like about the mother, why does the Lord call men like this to preach the gospel?

I have to be better out there.

I mean, in other words, what I'm saying is he's God.

I mean, who am I except a man up here hollering at y'all?

You understand what I'm saying?

I mean, through the foolishness of preaching.

This is the way the Lord the Lord knew we messed up as preachers at times, and y'all messed up too, no offense.

Just saying that, right?

And so, um, but you know, this good ground, I remember, uh, Brother Danny, that I one of the men that I loved in my life, his name was Brother Larry Goff.

And he was talking to me about preaching, and he said that no matter what sermon you preach, you we always run to the cross.

And Brother Danny was talking about us and our how that we at times are all these grounds, and we are.

But why do we need to be the good ground?

Because our Savior, our husband, deserves us to do better.

His love constraineth us.

Amen?

That so, brothers and sisters and brother Danny, I need to try harder to break up the stones in my own life.

Amen.

And sometimes we just don't try very hard, do we?

Brothers and sisters, Lord be our help to want to be a better bride.

By the way, um, I love my wife.

I can tell, Sister Lydia, that your husband loves you and you love him.

And man, I just smile thinking about wonderful biblical, godly relationships.

And the reason why I say that is that you and I want to have a good relationship with our husband.

And you make them messed up, right?

So he doesn't need to change nothing, and he doesn't change.

But you have a bad, right?

So how do we keep it better?

What do you bring about your masters?

One of the functions about the use of my children is we need to be brutally honest with our stables.

Christians sometimes stuff about what other people think of the phone's gonna put them on, or whatever how other people are gonna challenge us.

Forget them about the people trying to please God and bottom as a bottom of the police and God, you're gonna spit them over everybody else and bless them too.

Man, I appreciate Brother Danny's just opening up and telling us You know, you know what he said?

He was just telling us about his walk with the Lord, right?

I mean, on a daily basis, the struggles, the victories, the half-winds, the tide, the whatever, whatever, whatever.

I mean, and you and I have that too, right?

Brothers and sisters, let's be honest with ourselves.

And let's all try to serve the Lord better tomorrow.

I will never forget I'm done.

Y'all believe that, right?

Brother Then I told our congregation that when I was a Southern Baptist, the very first, the very first sermon that ever preached, I had 30 minutes.

I preached 33 minutes.

The first sermon that I ever preached in my entire life when I was 18 years old.

And I've never stopped since.

I've been along with it ever since.

Um I lost my train of thought.

Um, but brothers and sisters.

The Lord help us to serve him better.

He is a good God and a good Savior, and he is a perfect husband.

And may He change you and I every day.

Because He is a worthy husband.

We we are Gomer.

We're Gomer.

And we ought to live every minute of every day so thankful.

Just to have a loving husband and a home.

And a we are Gomer.

We love y'all very much.

And uh, we're just thankful that y'all came to be here tonight and may the Lord help us all to just serve him better and take our Christianity more seriously, to be brutally honest with ourselves.

He is a wonderful husband.

To him be all glory and honor and praise.

Uh, we're gonna ask uh Brother Don to help us come up and close on a word of song.

And uh after the first verse, we're gonna ask Brother Danny to come up here and we'll extend to him the right hand of Christian fellowship.

And uh Danny, we're just thankful that you've been here tonight, brother, and to God be the glory.

Um because I believe the Holy Spirit was in this place with us tonight.

And uh we couldn't have been anywhere else on a Friday night better than we were here.

Amen.

Brother Don, if you got one on your mind.