Simply Jesus | The Four Soils - Fr. Samuel Mbabaali

The holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to Mark again he began to teach beside the sea, and a

very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat

and sat in it on the sea. And the whole crowd was beside

the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many

things in parables. And in his teaching he said to

them, Listen, A sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some

seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.

Other seed fell on rocky ground where did not have much soil,

and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil.

And when the sun rose it was scorched, and since it had no

root it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns,

and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no

grain. And other seeds fell into good

soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding

30 fold and 60 fold and 100 fold.

And he said, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

And when he was alone, those around him with the 12 asked him

about the parables. And then he said to them, To you

has been given the secret of the Kingdom of God.

But for those outside, everything is in parables, so

that they may indeed see, but not perceive, and may indeed

hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be

forgiven. And he said to them, Do you not

understand this parable? How then will you understand all

the parables, the so or so's the Word.

And these are the ones along the path where the Word is sown.

When they hear it, Satan immediately comes and takes away

the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on

rocky ground, the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately

receive it with joy. And they have no root in

themselves, but endure for a while.

Then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of

the word, immediately they fall away.

And others are the ones sown among thorns.

They are those who hear the word.

But the cares of the world's, and the deceitfulness of riches,

and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and

approves unfruitful. But those that were sown on the

good soil are the ones who hear the word, and accept it, and

bear fruit thirtyfold and sixtyfold, and a hundredfold.

The Gospel of the Lord. Please pray with me.

We thank you Lord, for the beauty of stories.

They are good to hear. We enjoy them.

But also you have chosen to speak to us through those

stories so that we may know you. Invite you now to use this story

of the soils to speak to us in the name of Jesus Christ our

Lord. Amen.

Yeah. We have been reading the Gospel

according to Mark and now we are here at Mark chapter 4.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

Imagine a house with a hidden room.

These spaces are often concealed by things like bookshelves.

Sometimes they're false walls, and to most people who come into

such a house, these concealments such as bookshelves and walls,

they just look at them and they see a mere bookshelf.

But to those people who know what happens beyond that

concealment, the owners of the house, they know that there is

an entrance behind that concealment.

So when these are stitches in parables, it is as if similar to

a bookshelf that has an interest behind it.

The crowds hear stories of farming and fishing, ordinary

things like seeds and the sun and soils.

But beyond these common images and familiar language, there is

a meaning that Jesus wants the people to get out of these

stories. They are not just nice stories

for the people to hear, but for those people who are intimate

with Jesus, His followers who come back to him and tell him.

Lord explained this to us. The bookshelf moves and there is

an entrance. There is a door where people can

see the truth of the Kingdom of God.

In verse 11 and 12, Jesus says to a few people who remained

around him, He told them to you has been given the secret of the

Kingdom of God. But for those outside,

everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see, but

not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest

they should turn and be forgiven.

The difference between confusion and revelation is beyond what

people can just not hear. But if they are in the proximity

of Jesus, they get further revelation.

The truth is concealed for only the hearers who are not in

proximity to Jesus. Those who are keen and come back

to hear Him, they get to hear the truth.

So the truth is for the family of Christ.

Those who gather around him understand the parables.

So the parables are invitations, the invitations to those who are

hungry that if they reveal their hunger to Christ, then the truth

will be unfolded before them and the bookshelf will be opened and

they will be able to see the entrance into the Kingdom of

God. And in this particular parable

that has been commonly referred to as the parable of the sower,

these are specifically teaches us how we can be able to

identify the door of the Kingdom of God and how we can be able to

enter into that door and we become residents of that

Kingdom. When we encounter the word of

God, the word of the Kingdom of God, it reveals the postures of

our hearts. Some hearts are closed, some

hearts are impulsive, other hearts are divided, and some are

receptive and enduring. Let us look at how this is

unfolded. In this parable.

Giza speaks about seeds that fall along the path.

This is the ground that has been walked upon.

It is the ground that has been pressed down, and it has been

hardened because of this constant traffic.

And when the seeds fall onto that ground, they don't grow.

They simply lie exposed on the ground, and before long the

birds come and they eat away the seeds.

This is what happens with the heart that has been hardened.

This is a heart that has had externally, but it has not taken

on the gospel in the soul it has received.

It has had exposure, but it has not received what it has been

exposed to. There is a sound of the gospel,

but there is no surrender to the gospel.

It is like noise that has passed out.

It has heard the noise, but it has not rather thought about

that message. And because the message has not

entered into that heart, Jesus tells that that certain,

certainly certain immediately comes and takes away the Word

that is sown in them. There is an urgency here because

the gospel is just on the outside.

There is spiritual safety, and the spiritual theft is because

this person has made himself vulnerable to Satan.

So Satan comes and distills away the message because it has not

been treasured in the heart. Then Satan can easily take away

the message and steal it away. Jesus is warning us that our

hearts can easily become compacted.

These are some of the things that can compact our hearts.

And the gospel does not flourish in our hearts.

For instance, we can't be disappointed.

And when we be disappointed, we don't only lose trust in people

and systems, but also we lose trust in the promises of God,

that is, that are found in His Word.

And even when we encounter those promises, we have lost trust in

the people, but also in the promises of God.

Sometimes it can be because of pride, it can harden our heart.

And we look at the Word of God as mere opinions.

It doesn't have authority above us.

And then we just leave the Word of God as just an opinion which

has no authority in our hearts. Sometimes it can be because of

habitual sins, the patterns of life that are contrary to the

will of God that have become beer to us.

And when we hear God is called to holiness, we don't yield to

that call and our hearts are compacted and the hard.

So a compacted heart is realized or is seen by how it responds to

the convictions of God is Word. Because the Word of God convicts

us in several ways. It reveals our personal sins and

our wrongdoings. The Word of God compels us to

turn away from sin and towards God, and it instructs us into

the right way of living and the right way of thinking.

But when our heart is hardened, it dismisses all such

convictions. It doesn't respond to such

convictions of the Word of God. It is not because the Word of

God is weak. The Word of God is varied and

efficient for us in all seasons. But the problem would be with

our hearts when they are very hardened, they don't receive

that word that has power. It dismisses all that word.

But I would love to bring good news that there is mercy even

for the closed heart, the hardened heart, the heart that

has not perceived the word of God.

There is mercy for that heart because Jesus says in verse 3,

listen, He is not just calling us to auditory hearing, He's

calling us to receptive hearing. In this command, Jesus is

inviting the hardened heart to pause and reflect on what Jesus

is saying. This is the kind of listening

that we receive when we obediently read Scripture in

private, in humidity, and respond to what we have read.

It can happen corporately. When we gather with other

believers and we discuss the Word of God, we'll wrestle with

some of those things that are difficult in the Word of God.

And as we sharpen one another, our hearts are quickened to

listen to the Word of God. So listening is not passive.

It is engaging with the Word of God.

It is an invitation to engage with the Word of God.

It calls us to understand but also to trust the word of God

and to leave out the word of God.

It moves from just being someone who agrees with the word but

obey the word of God. When scripture calls us to

forgive, if we have listened to it, then we forgive.

If it calls us to love one another, then we love one

another. So listen is like God is opening

for us the door to the Kingdom, and He wants us to step into

that, though He invites us to listen.

So if the first soil warns us about a heart that never opens

at all, the second soil confronts us with something that

is so deceptive. Jesus says in verse five and six

other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil

and immediately it sprung up since it had no depth of soil.

And when the sun rose it was coached and since it had no root

it withered away. So now give us speaks about this

seed that does not enter into the soil and unlike this the

hardened heart we have looked upon previously, this seed it

has, it gives it, it brings up some life.

It starts by growing. There is some green life

happening. It is as if it's promising.

There is growth that happens. On the surface it appears

vibrant and responsive and alive.

But beneath there is a problem. There is a rock.

There is not much soil for the seed to grow.

It is just enough for germination, but it's not enough

for depth and for growth. And when the sun rises, what had

grown Withers away very soon. Jesus explains this and says in

verse 16 and 17. And these are the ones sown on

the rocky ground. The ones when they hear the

word, immediately receive it with joy.

And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a

while. Then when tribulation and

persecution arise on account of the word, immediately they fall

away. So there is response quickly to

the faith, quick response, but the response is not deep enough.

Someone can be tired by a wonderful summon, a wonderful

preaching, but after that there is no practice that follows

along. So this is some form of

eagerness and excitement about the word of God.

But there is no transformation that happens after hearing the

word of God. And the parable tells us that

the sun rises and the heat exposes what has been happening

to this heart, the impulsive heart that has no depth, the Son

Jesus. I showed us these are the

tribulations and the persecutions of the world.

Friends, the Word of God will always encounter us in forms

where it will charade some of the situations around us.

And because we live in the world around us, it will turn out

sometimes to be hostile to the Word of God that is in our

heart, that is in our lives. It will bring some difficulties

and opposition. Faith sometimes will be costly.

And when that pressure comes, the impulsive heart, the

impulsive faith collapses. Friends, we shall always be

checked. Our faith will always be put on

test. And when the impulsive heart is

put on test, then there is quick departure.

As soon as he came to faith that is the same agency that person

will lose the faith. So the impulsive heart is

characterized by just near quick response.

Faith can sometimes be responded too quickly, but not in just a

mere emotional way without valid reasons as to why you are

responding to faith. So the impulsive heart, it's

just sometimes quick response to the faith, but that has no valid

reasons. Sometimes this is faith that is

only prevailing in favorable conditions.

Sometimes you might be in a favorable place where our faith,

our faith can flourish. But when we go to places that

are not favorable, then the slow heart will lose out the faith.

So this soil is still rather difficult because when the

demands of the Kingdom of God come and they demand, they

demand you to stand upon them in difficult times, then the

shallow heart which was excited by faith will lose it all.

When there is a call to sacrifice, then the shallow

heart will lose it all. Sometimes people would want a

faith that thinks about the glorious Christian life, but not

the cost that comes with such a life.

We follow a Christ who was crucified and died, and he calls

us to walk in the same suffering.

Sometimes we shall encounter that suffering, but the shallow

heart. When the cross is before him,

then he will say that is no longer the faith I want to

identify with. That is why there is a lot of

prosperity teaching. Some people are drawn to that

prosperity teaching because they want a faith that appeals to

them. That is going to be well with

you. And when they see it's not well

with them, then they lose out the faith.

So the call to the impulsive heart is to be rooted in the

faith. Christian growth does not happen

accidentally, and sometimes does it happen in an instant.

It is something that we have to work upon slowly and steadily

formed over time. Faith strengthened through

things like prayer where we learn how to commune with God.

Our faith is strengthened by obedience when we learn how to

walk according to the will of God as we expose ourselves to

Scripture and we come to understand what is the weed of

God for our lives in all seasons.

So to the impulsive heart, the question would be not that did

you respond to the gospel, but are you rooted now?

Some people have those glorious stories of how I answered a call

at a revival meeting when they called people to come and step

up, but after that, what happened?

Are you rooted now? Because the sun will rise and

the faith would be tested, and if it's not rooted, then it will

collapse and it will die. So if the rocky soil reveals

faith that cannot withstand the pressure, then the funny soil

exposes faith that stands, that cannot stand.

Without destruction there is faith that cannot stand against

pressure, but there is also faith that cannot stand when

they are distractions. This is what we read in verse 7.

Because Jesus speaks about the seeds that fell among the

thorns, He says, And the thorns grew and choked it, and it

yielded no grain. So this seed takes root, it

grows, There is life which is present, but something else is

growing in the same soil where this seed is growing, because

alongside it, quietly and slowly, almost unnoticeably, but

the Thrones are growing in the same plantation and they soon

suffocate. The seed that is growing, the

one remains present, but it's no longer alone in the field.

It is not flourishing alone in the field.

So faith is mixed up with a lot of a lot of rivalries and a lot

of Arrhenius is that are pulling this person away from the faith.

The word was hard. The word was not rejected.

The word was not stolen, but now the word is simply crowded

amidst many other demands and precious Jesus names the thorns

with clarity. He says in verse 19 the cares of

the world and the deceitfulness of the riches and the desires

for other things. One thing we should notice is

that these things are not are not immoral things.

They are things that we need for our ordinary lives.

Their responsibilities, for instance, caring for our elderly

parents and raising children. And these things are things we

need, their responsive responsibilities we need to take

care of. Some of them are opportunities

like advancement in career, like taking on a certification

program, an advanced program of study.

These are things that we need. The opportunities in life, some

of them might be possessions that are near to us, homes and

boats and whatever things that we possess in life.

Others might be things like ambitions, the things that we

pursue, financial independence. It is something good to pursue

it. However, if they grow unchecked

in our lives, they may compete with our faith and whatever

competes with Christ eventually constricts our devotion to

Christ. The thorns choke the seed, but

they don't do it overnight. They continue on choking the

seed slowly by slowly till when the divided heart is choked.

And the divided heart can continue on pursuing the faith,

but at some time, at some time it will continue on withering

and renounce the faith. So the divided heart is anxious

with things like success and accumulation of things at the

expense of the Kingdom of God, and then the soul becomes

crowded. So this posture does not deny

Christ. However, it does not prioritize

Christ. Christ is no longer the priority

in the life of this person. And this is the tragedy where

Christ shares a throne with anything.

There will not be fruit in that life.

Christ wants to be the king on the throne in our lives, His

dream. So if there is anything that is

competing with Him for the throne, then our priorities will

slowly by slowly take us away from the cross.

So the invitation for this heart that is divided is to pull out

the Thrones, pull out the things that we are prioritizing above

Christ. What does this look like?

If these anxieties, let us surrender these anxieties to the

Lord in prayer, speak to God to Christ in prayer.

Since CIA and you admit something that you are anxious

about. Maybe God is calling me to

dethrone some of the things that are riches in my life that I

have that are happening on my heart.

Christ might call me to put down those riches, to put them down

under his feet. Some of them might be desires.

And God is calling me to reorder my life to have time for Him

reorder my life. If you are giving time for your

ambitious pursuits, maybe you can call Christ is calling me to

step down, that I should also give Christ some time of my life

instead of using my time to pursue the things I love dearly.

So if we don't prioritize Christ, then there will be no

fruit in our lives. So at last let us look at this

soil where the seeds grow and they do what they are meant to

do. In verse 8, Jesus says and other

seeds fell into good soil and produced grain growing up and

increasing and yielding 30 fold and 60 fold and 100 fold.

So this is a soil or this is faith that is responsive and

resilient and fruitful. It does not only merely hear the

word, but it receives the word to the heart.

It welcomes the word not just as a suggestion, but as a word that

has authority over our lives. And the Word is accepted and the

Word is submitted to. We live as servants in that

Kingdom where we submit to the Word of God.

So the good so does not argue with the Word of God.

The Word of God is welcomed with eagerness and there is nothing

like competition. The Word is reigning sovereign

in the life of this person. So the faith that is like that

is characterized by things like this.

There is humidity and reception of the Word.

This is the heart that says Master, speak, your servant is

hearing. There is a faith that is rooted

in Christ, and there is Christ who is above reigning sovereign.

There is nothing that is enthralled on the heart of this

person, and this faith produces fruits that are visible.

Our faith, when we are obedient to Christ, our faith becomes

visible in many ways. It is never something that we

keep to ourselves. It leads to transformation.

It is not something that we keep and we have emotions and we have

a lot of intellect and wisdom about our faith.

Our faith leads to transformation.

A heart that has been good soil to the gospel is a heart that

produces transformation in the life of the bear.

So Jesus even says that there will be abundance of fruit.

He lists fruit in several ways. He says 3060 and 100 fold.

You know, I am an agriculturist. I have a farm.

I know you can speculate the kind of harvest you are going to

get. And there are sometimes when you

harvest and you say this is beyond what I expected, barely

can you go 100 fold in your expectations?

You cannot go 100 * 100. You times 100.

If I were to harvest, maybe I grow coffee, 4 bags of coffee

very Can you go beyond and you say times 100.

But Jesus is here giving us something that is to the

audience that listened to him, that we are Greek agrarians like

like me, they said this kind of carpet.

But Jesus is saying something. When our faith produces fruits,

they surpass us. They can surpass you.

You can't do something which can contribute to generations.

Some of the heroes of our faith. Then we are just merely walking

faithfully with Christ. But even up to now we are still

praising them. Many years from now they have

faith has produced abundance of fruit.

This is what God is telling us. He's not quantifying our the

result of our faith, but He's telling us if we continue

obeying Him faithfully, abundant things will happen in our lives

and people would be amazed. How can this weak boy in this

near small school do something like this and the other students

will be amazed. How can you resist this kind of

temptation? How can he love to the in such a

way? So when we yield ourselves to

Christ and we allow Him to transform us, there will be

abundance. Our love can can extend to

places where people don't think the love can go, but our love

will go there. Our giving can go to places

where people say we have never seen this because there will be

abundance of our faith. So it is not a call for us to

say how can I continue on quantifying my faith?

It is a call for me to continue working faithfully with Christ.

And as I do that, it is Christ who is going to write my story

and people will be amazed. How can this person in VC City

Chicago follow Christ to such fruitfulness?

So the call throughout the parable is still the same call

to us. Listen.

Christ is calling us to listen. True hearing results in

transformed lives. And when we speak about

transformed lives, it's not about being flawless, it's not

about having no scene in our lives, but it's about being

responsive. It is about responding to the

call that we hear in the word. When it corrects us, we will do

the correction. When we are tested, we and you

are. And when we we realize the

blessing of the word of the word of God in our lives, we multiply

those blessings in other people's lives.

So in verse 9, Jesus says he who has ears to ear, let him hear.

So the Kingdom of God is like a wide door.

So the word is spoken, spoken openly, preached openly for all

people to hear. Some people choose to respond to

it, others don't choose to respond to it, but still the

invitation continues going out to the people.

Some other people choose to only look at the door and walk past

the door. Other people step into that door

briefly and then they step out. Others only stand in the

doorway. They don't want to fully enter

into the door. But Christ has called us to

fully accept to go into the door and remain as residents into

that Kingdom by faith when receive the gospel and when we

continue walking according to the demands of the word of the

of the, of the word of the Lord. So the invitation is even open

today to anyone who would consider stepping into the Word,

stepping into the door to the Kingdom of God by faith, and

also continuing on to walk into the Kingdom by faith in the name

of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.