Luke 8:1-21

Hey guys, this is Pastor Josh from Haven City Church.

Uh thanks for tuning in to our podcast.

Uh the following sermon was given on April 22nd, 2018.

We're covering the parable of the sower from Luke chapter 8.

Luke 8 · chapter mention

If you want to get more information about our church, you can go to www.baltimorechurch.com.

We are a new church plant in Fells Point, Baltimore.

And uh we're excited about what God's doing.

We've got lots of opportunities.

In fact, this um particular sermon starts off with a great introduction to what we are as a church and some of the opportunities that we have to do outreach in our local area.

Thanks for tuning in.

Kids, you are dismissed to your class.

Just want to reiterate for you just the welcome that uh Marvin gave.

Um have you ever seen a baby that is five weeks old?

A baby that's five weeks old is so cute, right?

And one of the things about a five-week-old baby is that they they don't really have much control of their motor skills.

It's more like these herky jerky like motions like that, you know, and they're they they're not really kind of coordinated yet, but they're starting to fatten fatten up a little bit.

And well, we're five weeks old as a church, and um, and we're still like a little like herky jerky and hopefully fattening up a little bit, right?

Um so uh we've been we've been doing this for um a month now.

So uh congratulations.

I really appreciate every everybody that comes and helps set up.

Yeah, amen.

So thank you guys so much.

Thank you guys so much for um your help.

Starting a church in the city is not um easy and it's not for everybody.

So it's a little bit messy, it's a little bit unique.

So um I just appreciate those of you that have been committed and been a part of what we're doing.

We'll be back here at 10 a.m.

next week with a full service.

A couple of a couple of things.

One, um we as a church we're committed to community, building uh in our relationships with one another.

Um the opposite of kind of a community-based church is like a consumer-based church where you kind of drive in, get your needs met, and then you take off, right?

And and that's easy and that may be fun, but as a church, we really want to try to kind of go against the grain of our culture and build relationships with one another.

Um, and so we do that by by faithfully attending church on Sundays and getting here early.

And um we have an awesome hospitality team that sets up, you know, a bunch of refreshments.

So if you mix breakfast, sometimes we've got a little bit of food, and we're building relationships that way.

But um and then we're also meeting throughout the week.

You know, we have our women's Bible study, and then we have men's gatherings, and and hopefully here pretty soon we'll start meeting.

I'd like to open up my home and do something in my house.

Um, I live right up, you know, uh half a mile from here, up off of on the corner of Patterson Park.

Um so we want to build relationships with one another.

But the second tier out of three tiers for our church is this whole idea of claim, is what we've called it, which is just this commitment that we want to claim what is ours in Christ.

Jesus has uh purchased for us the ability to grow and bear fruit.

And we're gonna talk about that in the sermon today.

Um, and we want to take a hold of that.

Like Paul says in uh Philippians chapter 3, 12, that um I'm moving forward, right?

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

I'm I want to lay claim, lay a hold of what Christ has um purposed for me, right?

So um we have both a live discipleship setting that we're gonna do like quarterly Saturday morning times where we get together and we talk about um probably for three hours we talk about three different topics that are central to who we are in Christ.

But because it's only quarterly and because the pace of the city is so fast, in fact, from our core team of launching this church, we literally cycled through, I think, seven or eight people before we even got to Sunday mornings, right?

Because careers take people out of the city, the different events take people away.

So it was just impressed upon me to use the internet also for discipleship.

So as of this week, we launched our first discipleship class, which covers six key topics.

It's it's this is the first kind of announcement on your bulletin there.

It's our it's called Claim One.

Um Vitals is the name of the class, and it covers six things that you've got to know to succeed as a Christian.

And so um if you want to be a member and a part of what's going on, this is a class that you need to go through.

Um we pay actually for this platform so that you have it as uh our church pays for the platform so that you can take the class for free.

Um there are little videos um that are sampled from different um great pastors that we trust and would recommend covering salvation, the grace of God, um, how to study the Bible, what is the Bible.

Um and so some of it's like it's gonna be rehashed stuff that you've already done.

Uh, but for some of you, this is like I've talked with you, and I know that this is exactly what you need, and you haven't covered this material before.

So um it is there, and uh the link to it will be on our website, but right now the link is on Slack, which is our communication tool as a church.

So online discipleship.

The third tier of us as a church is the whole idea of contribute, right?

We want to take in in Romans chapter 12, it says that we offer our bodies a living sacrifice.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

We were contributing ourselves to the Lord.

That's the whole purpose of discipleship, right?

That's the whole purpose of pastoring, is that I'm leading you guys to a place where you're offering yourselves back to the Lord uh as a and you're saying, Lord, I'm all in, I'm yours.

Um I feel like this pole here is my friend.

It's kind of a weird room.

I was like, you know, when I'm like up here teaching, it's it's it's it's it's always in my way, too.

Um contribute.

So contribute is that third tier, which is the idea that that we we serve together.

So um we want to live our life as missionaries.

We believe that God has given us each a mission field with um friends and coworkers and neighbors that don't know Jesus yet, um, but God's put us in their life to be a part of God's work in them, right?

So that's the first part of like contribute ourselves to the Lord.

The second part is is embracing just this this square mile of southeast Baltimore.

You know that we've kind of got, we've borrowed, or maybe the the Catholic Church borrowed from somebody else, but the Catholic Church to do this thing was as a parish, right?

And it's a geographical region that the Catholic Church is focused on ministering to.

And that's why here in Baltimore you have so many Catholic church buildings because they are focused on just neighborhoods.

So we have a square mile that we're focused on.

You can see the actual geography of it if you go on our website to baltimorechurch.com/slash pray, because we're trying to partner people with praying for blocks within that square mile.

If you're not, if you want to do that too, you can.

We have about six adopted blocks out of 250.

Um if you live in that square mile, you should adopt your own block, uh, probably and pray for it.

Um but but we are trying to love and care.

So we've adopted so the schools that are in that square mile, we've begun to care for the drug rehab, which is primarily up between Lombard and um Pratt, right?

Off Broadway, which is called what?

What's it called?

Yeah, no, it's something else.

It's called something else.

There's three, no, there's helping up mission, but there's three drug rehabs right off Broadway right there.

But yeah, I've I've gone up there just trying to work with the staff more and more.

Powell, that's what it is, yeah.

And then we have our we have the compassion center off Eastern Avenue, and that's um our physical presence throughout the week, where it looks like a thrift store, but we're giving away free clothes and food, and um that gives us such a bridge to reach um so many in the neighborhood.

So we give away we feed 20 families on Fridays with free food that Trader Joe's gives us.

There's a bunch of stuff that's going on.

So, all that to say, that's kind of when you step into the Haven City Church um world, those are like the that's what it means to be a part of this church.

Those three things community, claim, and contribute.

Um, and if you yeah, if you have any questions about that or you want to be more engaged or you want to do more, you can.

The um living life as a missionary on the back of your bulletin, it's the five for five.

That's basically a breakdown of what it means to live as a missionary in your everyday life.

You're identifying five individuals, or maybe it's three, or maybe it's ten, you know, that you're doing those five things for um on a regular basis.

And then the last thing is again, if you're new, Marvin mentioned the um the contact card.

Um, and we'll trade you a contact card for one of two books that are over here.

So just take a book and and give us a contact card on the way out.

Pick one.

They're both they're both excellent.

I don't know which one I like better.

All right, that's it for announcements.

And um, so we're gonna be in Luke chapter eight.

Luke chapter eight.

So we've been going through the book of Luke uh for uh since Christmas time.

We started I love to start a gospel at Christmas time because then we get to get the um Christmas narrative and um and then we just go in.

I I I think where are we at?

April?

I think we should be able to finish the book of Luke this year.

That's my goal.

I'm trying to go, it's a long book and long chapters, you know.

Hey, this is like, you know the gospels, it's like it's ground zero for the life of Jesus.

So um, you know, after we leave, before this we did Philippians, which is great.

After we leave the gospels, it'll be another little while before we come back into a gospel.

We may spend um the the following year, 2019, looking at um some epistles.

I know on I know on um Fridays, so on Fridays we have the Compassion Center and the Trader Joe's food comes in, and then we give it out to like 20 families.

And Derek, who's our ministry intern, he teaches Bible class at two.

And I would say that out of like the 13 to 15 people there for Bible class, like 11 or 12 are not born-again Christians.

And um, so it's great.

But one of the common things that comes up in this group is people want to know like about the book of Revelation, they want to know about heaven.

Um, and so I'm thinking about doing a um spending some time doing like a Daniel revelation type thing, uh, maybe not the full book, but just going into that and and talking about that because there's so many questions.

I think that that would be that might draw some more people in that are not yet fully committed to Jesus, but they're um willing to learn.

Okay, Luke chapter 8, verses 1 through 21.

Luke 8:1–21

We'll read it and then we'll pray, and then we will um we'll look at a few different things.

All right.

Luke eight, one through twenty-one.

After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.

The twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases.

Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had come out, Joanna, the wife of Chusa, the manager of Herod's household, Susanna, and many others.

These women were helping to support them out of their own means.

While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable.

A farmer went out to sow his seed.

As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path.

It was trampled on, and the birds ate it up.

Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up the plants withered because they had no moisture.

Other seed fell among thorns which grew up with and choked the plants.

Still other seed fell on good soil, it came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than what was sown.

When he said this he called out, Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.

His disciples asked him what this parable meant, and he said, The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that those seeing they may not see, though hearing they may not understand.

This is the meaning of the parable.

The seed is the word of God.

Those along the path are the ones you hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root.

They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.

The seed that fell among the thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches, and pleasures, and they do not mature.

But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble heart and a good heart, a noble and a good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering they produce a crop.

No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed.

Instead they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.

For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.

Therefore consider carefully how you listen.

Whoever has will be given more, and whoever does not have, even what they think they have, will be taken from them.

Now Jesus' mother and brothers came to see him, but they were not able to get near him because of the crowd.

Some told him, Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to see you, uh wanting to see you.

He replied, My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice.

Let's pray.

God, as we look at this text, we want to just say that you're you're the king, and you have uh you have all authority and power, and God, we want to yield to you and your word.

Um, Lord, we we easily, and probably some of this week, we did in our own power and um making our own decisions, not really relying upon you, trusting in you with all of our heart.

But but right now, God, as we look at your word, we want to say that you're in charge and we're yielded to what you have to say to us.

So, so speak to us by your Holy Spirit.

We pray, God, that that what Jesus, you're here encouraging for your followers, that this would be evident in our life as followers of you.

So have your way in us.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Okay, so quick outline verses one through three, we have this really interesting note about these women, these three women, and then it says, many others that follow Jesus, and they're providing for Jesus and his ministry.

Then verses four through eight says, the telling of the parable of the sower.

We have four soils.

Um, we have these four soils.

Umly one has a plant that furt flourishes.

So that's the actual parable.

Then in verses nine and ten, Jesus rationalizes and explains his use of parables.

And then verse through 11 through 15 is an explanation of this specific parable.

And then verse 16 through 18, you have this analogy of lighting a lamp, and Jesus is trying to communicate something through this whole picture of a lamp not being hidden under a clay jar.

And then verse 19 and 20, we have a narrative about Jesus' um mother and brothers trying to come and see him, and Jesus has this really interesting thing to say about um who his mother and brother are.

So, really quickly, um, the as I was reading through this, just the women.

So we finish chapter 7 looking at a woman who is breaking through social norms because of the gratitude in her heart for the forgiveness she's received.

In fact, it says in the text that this was a sinful woman that came and washed Jesus' feet with her tears.

It was awkward, right?

It's like, whoa, what's going on here?

This seems kind of weird.

Like Jesus is having a meal and she's crying.

And so anyway, we leave chapter seven having this image of this woman so grateful for her sins being forgiven.

And then the text continues to tell us about three other women who are traveling with Jesus from town to town, as well as many others.

And um this is again, this is one of those areas where you've just got to appreciate as Luke is writing this, who Luke's a doctor, um, he's recounting for his patron um what are the true accounts of Jesus' life, right?

And and so one of the things that's unique is just the role of women in Jesus' ministry.

Um at this time, culture culturally, it was a hierarchical culture.

Women were perceived uh as having less value than men.

Um and and we know of some cultures that are like that.

Maybe um like in the Middle East, you may see um, like just recently, I think in Saudi Arabia this year, women were just for the first time now allowed to drive.

So so we have even today hierarchical cultures that that take women and and treat them differently.

And here is Jesus.

Um not only are these women a part of the story, they're named, but they have this role where they're caring for the needs of Jesus.

As I was reading this last night again, it came to mind that we've we've got this lady that found our like primitive church website last spring, probably last February, and she just started supporting the church.

And um she emailed me and she said, I I'm a nurse in the city, I live in the county, drive into the city, drive all around.

I've got two nursing jobs.

She's single, just like in her 40s, I think.

And she has faithfully contributed to this church plant since last um last spring, and she is the single largest contributor to our church, other than like major organizations, sending organizations.

And and so as I was reading this, I I emailed her back and I said, I just got to tell you, I'm we're so grateful for you and her step of faith.

I don't know what she makes, but she just gives so generously.

I'm inspired, you know, by by her life and what she has done.

So Jesus has these three uh women as and many others that are tagging along.

And um, and so just in passing, we've got to appreciate just how much this would have stood out culturally when Luke uh wrote this.

And then um, you look at the story of like Mary and Martha when when Mary is sitting at the feet of Jesus learning, that was a male-only role.

It wasn't just that she was a slacker, not doing house, being being a learner sitting at the feet of Jesus, that would have been culturally inappropriate, but yet Jesus affirms Mary as a um as a learner, as a disciple in the home.

Um, the first appearance that Jesus, Jesus first appears to women after he's raised from the dead.

So scripture does not teach a hierarchical match it, it teaches a distinction of genders, but it does not teach a hierarchical um uh perspective on genders.

And if we live in an age that kind of wrestles with those things.

So um, if you have questions about gender and what the Bible says, um, I would love to talk with you about that.

The how many of you guys are familiar with the um parable of the sower, right?

You guys are pretty familiar with this.

It's it's um it's a famous parable.

Now, so we have these accounts in three different settings.

We have it in Matthew, uh Matthew chapter 13, Mark chapter 4, and each account gives a different rendition of it.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention Mark 4 · chapter mention

And um, but the but verse 15, look for a second at verse 15 in um in your Bible.

Luke 8, verse 15.

Luke 8:15

Luke 8, verse 15.

Luke 8:15

Because this is where we're gonna camp out as we um as we look at this text, but because This is what makes it unique.

This account, Luke chapter 8, verse 15, says this.

Luke 8:15

But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and a good heart who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

That is like the key verse, right?

So if you look at Mark and this account in Mark, or you look at it in Matthew, Jesus has repeated this parable and different times, and each one of those accounts kind of emphasizes something different.

It doesn't lose its overall meaning, but but what's unique about it here in Luke is verse 15 and what it says there.

So Jesus is telling this parable and it trips out the um disciples, his key, his main followers are like, Why are you talking in in parables?

What is what's going on?

And Jesus basically says that parables are given for people who want to hear.

Are you um do you you know of people who are passionate about stuff?

You got people that are passionate.

We have it here in Baltimore, we have a convention center, and every week it features people that are passionate about something.

Like a couple weeks ago, it was like My Little Pony, right?

We had like a My Little Pony convention, right?

Yeah.

And then you've got your Trekkies, right?

And you've got your Harry Potter, I know they had they had a convention, right?

Comic-con, yeah.

You've got people that are just like passionate about something, right?

And so Jesus is saying here with parables that parables are given to people who really want to hear.

If you're passionate about being a follower, if you're really truly hungry, then parables reveal more to you than the average person would receive.

But if you are not passionate about something, then you just kind of like gloss over it.

Right now, I my friend uh Derek here is trying to get me to watch uh Inception, which I've never seen before.

And I'm suffering through it.

I have started it and cannot just, I just cannot get through it.

I know I've got to persevere a little bit further.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

But I I feel like I feel like with with this movie, I'm like, I'm one of these people that just don't want to hear it right now.

Like I've got, I it's gotta like take hold of me.

And that's what Jesus is saying about parables.

He's speaking in parables so that the people who are really passionate and want to get it will not just get it, but they'll get it in a profound way.

That it'll grab a hold of their life and it will it will convict them to the core of who they are.

So Jesus, we've seen since right after his baptism and his temptation in the wilderness, he's going around and he is preaching from city to city.

Now we tend to kind of like get fixated on these miracles where he's healing the dead, or he's um uh yeah, he's raising people from the dead, or he's healing people that are blind, or he's um multiplying the food.

All these different miracles really capture our attention.

But that what Jesus is really doing is he is preaching, he is con he is communicating the gospel.

In fact, the whole um the text that we're looking at here, what does it start with?

In verse 1, it says he went on from uh town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God.

So Jesus' ministry is conveying a message.

And this parable is saying there are people, there are different kinds of listeners to the message.

There are four different types of mess of listeners.

When George, and and and here, the reason we didn't just take this parable by itself, do you see the end of verse 21?

You've got this weird account where Jesus is like, he's picking up a crowd.

So we're congratulations, church, we're getting really into like the core of Jesus' teaching, right?

And it's it's he's he's gaining momentum in what's going on, and it's this awesome thing that's taking place, and it's and the parables really, or with Jesus' teaching, hey Claude, come on in.

Welcome.

So with um with where Jesus is at, he is um he is conveying this idea.

Look, you need to be hearers, you need to listen.

So in verse 21, he says, Here's who my brother and my mother are.

Because his biological family came to him.

They couldn't get to him, and the disciples are like, hey, you know, maybe should we interrupt what's going on here?

Should we let him in?

And Jesus says, No, my brother and mother are the ones who hear and listen to me.

That's the point, right?

That's the point of the parable, right?

The whole point of this whole your homework, by the way, the whole point of the whole lamp thing.

Go and read verse um, that's verses 16 through 18.

That's your homework this week.

And share on Slack what you think about.

Because it's so weird.

16 through 18 is kind of a, and we're not going to touch it a whole lot this morning.

But it goes with this theme of listening, right?

Even the last chapter, chapter 7, is talking about listeners, right?

You have the people who listen to John the Baptist's message, and so when Jesus affirms John the Baptist and says John the Baptist is a good dude, uh, all of those people are excited, but the Pharisees are upset with Jesus because Jesus affirms John, right?

And the Pharisees didn't listen to John's message.

So Jesus, this this whole theme of being a good listener has been going on for a while, right?

I think the Holy Spirit was leading Luke as he wrote these uh chapters or this account to really be emphasizing this point of being a listener.

When George Whitfield preached on this text, he entitled his sermon, How to Hear a Sermon.

How to hear a sermon.

I do this every week.

I stand up here, I spend, you know, probably spent eight, ten hours going through the text, preparing.

And my prayer for you, I'm praying for you as we go through this.

I'm praying that beyond my speaking, that the Holy Spirit meets you guys during this time and that he speaks to you from his word.

I try to draw out applications and apply it to our lives, but I'm trusting that God's in our midst and that he knows your story.

He knows the baggage you walk through that door with, the things you're anxious about this week, and that you will encounter God and his power while we are going through the text.

Amen.

So, Keller, Tim Keller, he says that there are, as we look at this, that there are three tests to determine whether or not we truly have heard the gospel message that we get from this.

The first test is to be beware of listening to the message of Jesus with a hard heart.

So the seed goes out, and where does the seed fall?

It falls on the path, right?

Like the sidewalk.

So the path, so the seed falls on the sidewalk, and what it says is that it gets trampled, and the birds come and they snatch away the seed.

And so when Jesus goes back and he explains the um this part of the parable, he says, the devil comes and snatches away the gospel from people's hearts.

So the first test, the first thing we have to consider is this.

We have to beware that we're listening to the message of Jesus with a hard heart.

He says this it is possible to be in contact with the Word of God on a regular basis, and yet it doesn't penetrate the heart.

A theoretical understanding of Jesus' message is not enough.

You and I need to have a personal experience with the truth.

Right?

This kind of, those of you that are familiar with philosophy in Kierkegaard, it reminds you of Kierkegaard's great cry of like, let's just do Christianity, right?

Let's just, let's just do it.

Like, let's let's get away from the theoretical.

Let's actually like be Jesus' people.

Maybe we don't fully understand it, but let's like, let's get, let's get it into the here and now.

And that doesn't take place if we have a hard heart.

Uh the second test, the second test that we need to kind of put ourselves through looking at this parable is to beware of listening to Jesus' message with a shallow heart.

A shallow heart.

These people saw Jesus as a service provider.

They listened to Jesus' message out of self-interest.

They viewed themselves as sufferers and not sinners.

Your main problem is not that you are a sufferer, your main problem is that you are a sinner.

Now you remember in this parable, the the on the parable side of it, before it's applied, this is the seed that goes into rocky ground, right?

So the seed falls on rocky ground and the seeds kind of can get into the soil, but you don't have depth, right?

Have you ever planted carrots?

Have you planted carrots?

Yes.

Okay.

When the key to planting good carrots, right, is you've got to have like the finest, softest soil, right?

Am I right?

If you don't, if you have rocks, you get these like, you get you split.

Yeah, your carrots start going nuts, right?

Yeah, so the rocky soil, the seed falls on the rocky soil and it cannot get depth.

The rocks, uh, the roots cannot get its depth.

And so when Jesus explains that part of the parallel, he says, this is like the person who they hear the word of God and they believe.

And they're doing okay, but then all of a sudden trials and tribulations come along, and because they don't have that depth, they really haven't let the roots develop, they bail, they out.

It says they fall away, is the word that Jesus is Jesus uses.

And so this is the second thing that we need to look at with our hearts.

Do we have a shallow heart?

Do we kind of come to church and go, whoo, that was good, good sermon, Josh, appreciate that.

And then it's like out the door, and we haven't let it penetrate our lives, right?

We get up in the morning, we read the Bible, and it was like, okay, well, that's cool, that's a good story.

And but there's no thought of God beyond that, right?

We want to be, as Jesus followers, we want to be people that are learning to allow God to like grow his roots deep within us.

His word needs to just saturate all of our life.

So there's this heart evaluation.

Do I have a shallow heart?

Am I just letting God kind of like scratch the surface, or am I letting God's word penetrate deep?

And the third test, the third test here that Keller suggests is this beware of listening to the word of God with a divided heart.

With a divided heart.

Now you remember the third, the third seed that fell was in Luke chapter 8, was where the seed goes and it falls amongst thorns, right?

Luke 8 · chapter mention

And so it starts to grow, the plant starts to grow up, but then the thorns come along and choke it out.

So when Jesus explains this parable, he says, that is like those people who get choked out by the cares of this world, either worries or they're enticed by pleasures, right?

And so um Keller says this beware of listening to the word of God with a divided heart.

They are committed to Christ, but they also are committed to other areas.

Things are crowding Christ out.

You agree with the message of Christ, but because of the duplicity in your life, there is no room for fruit.

The psalmist prays to the Lord, Lord, unite my heart.

Unite my heart.

Man, it is easy.

I, you know, I was born, and I've shared this before, right?

And this is nothing new.

I was born with attention and deficit disorder.

And I still have attention deficit disorder.

I was doing something this week, and I realized like 30 minutes later, like, whoa, I was supposed to be doing this over here.

And I was like, how did I get that distracted?

You know, I was so off track.

And I was like, yep, I I still got it.

We can be have attention deficit or disorder in our spiritual lives where where we just we have a divided heart, where where we are just we we have these other things that we're equally committed to with Christ.

Here's the thing Jesus calls us to a full commitment.

He calls us to a full commitment to him, right?

And um that births all these other things, like ever the rest of our life flows out of that um commitment to Christ.

So going back to 15, verse 15, just wrapping things up here, because we've got to do a barbecue.

Verse 15, it says this, and look at these characteristics.

But the seed, the seed on this fourth soil, the good soil, stands for those with a noble and a good heart who hear the word, they retain it, and by persevering they produce a crop.

Do you see that?

They have a noble and a good heart.

That's a heart that is, it means it's fully functional.

They hear it.

Hear it is like, is is not just listening, but it's understanding, it's comprehending.

Retain it means to grab a hold of something.

To really, let's say like that word claim, you know, it's like, I got it, I'm gonna hold it.

And then persevering, other translations use per patience.

It's like, I've got it and I'm gonna hold on to it, and yeah, storms are gonna come, yeah, trials are gonna come, and we are going to just stick with what God's word says.

I am committed.

And the fourth thing there is they're fruitful, they're producing a crop.

That's what that's what Jesus wants for his followers, right?

That's that's and and we have these different vignettes through the gospel of those that are good soil and then those that are bad soil, right?

People that come, they follow Jesus for a little while, and then they fall away.

Now, I just want to say about this parable, this is not talking about eternal destination.

You can be a Christian and glean from this, right?

You this this is just Jesus is talking to his current crowd, and by this parable, he's trying to encourage them to be that good soil.

Um, and it's possible to at one point be a good soil and God's doing stuff in you, and then you kind of drift away and you become one of these other types of soil.

It's just a heart check, right?

This isn't talking about you're eternally damned because you didn't listen to God's word that one time, right?

No, Jesus is trying to motivate his listeners to have a soft heart, that good soil that springs up and produces fruit.

Amen.

And that's that's that's really what Jesus is getting at.

That's his heart for us as followers.

So here we here we've been.

We're going through the book of Luke.

The gospel message is this that Jesus came into the world to rescue sinners from their sin.

The Bible says everyone has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

We've we've lost the perfection that God gave to the world, and we're separated from God, but God sent his son, Jesus, into the world.

And we've been looking at Jesus, and Jesus is saying, I have come to give you life.

I've given you come to give you life more abundantly, and he's trying to get people to just follow him.

Everything that Jesus is talking about flows from a belief in him of holding on to him.

And you and I have this opportunity, right?

We have this opportunity to either believe what Jesus is saying and believe in him and draw life from him, or we can be that hard-hearted person that rejects his work in our life.

And so my prayer for you guys and my prayer for uh this neighborhood, this community for Baltimore is that God's word would go out and that it would be on us, it would be on good ground, that people would just it's like all these benefits, all these blessings flow.

All these blessings flow from just having a soft heart.

Amen.

Let's stand.

We're gonna um pray, clean up really fast, and start the grill.

Start the grill.

All right, so let's uh let's pray together.

God, well, let's hold hands, hold hands, reach across.

One big happy family.

Amen.

This is nice.

When I get tired, I'll lean against this pole here.

God, bless this week.

Thank you for saving us from our sin.

Thank you for making us a unique people, Lord.

Lord, our hearts can be deceptive, they can get screwed up, they can become hard, and yet you can reach our hearts.

So have mercy.

Change our hearts, Lord, where there's hardness, uh, where we need to um yield to you.

We just give you our hearts, Lord.

I pray, Lord, for this group here.

I know there's specific needs that are represented.

Some are unspoken, that are private.

You know those things.

Um, I don't think Don's gonna mind us praying for his housing.

He's looking for new housing, Lord.

Bless Don.

He's got a meeting this afternoon or this evening with a uh a landlord.

We pray that Jesus, you would provide for him in a powerful way.

Bless, bless Don.

Thank you for letting him be a part of our church family, for bringing him and his help.

Lord, we pray you'd be with Liz, bless her.

Lord Matt McCorkle, Lord, he has gone through so much.

He's still going through stuff.

We pray that you would be with Matt, he's in Florida right now.

We pray that you would bless his training, that you'd get him into this new job, that you'd work out the stuff with his um ex-wife and the custody battle that's going on there.

We just, Jesus, we ask for your um your sovereign hand to be at work and that you give him peace in the meantime.

Um, thank you for Derek and just his work in the Compassion Center.

Um, Lord, we pray for healing and health.

I know different people are working on their health and in different stages of working on their health.

And Lord, we pray that you would just be merciful and merciful.

So bless, bless us as a church and bless our meal, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.