The Soil of the Soul

Hallelujah. Man, I want some ice cream now. Of course,

it's cold outside, so maybe some hot fudge on that, Right, Robert? That's right.

Well, I just. I want to start this morning by

thanking the team that is assembled to

mount this gathering for us today. And, you know, it's a. It's an

eclectic atmosphere for you. I'll tell you, it's a very eclectic atmosphere

because I'm about to preach to a room of empty chairs. But you know what?

I believe in a God that is so big and

omnipresent that I believe that the words that he

has prepared for today will transcend all walls and

permeate people's hearts and change people's hearts for eternity. That's the kind of God

he is. Not because I'm. Trust me, I'm just a vessel, but because of how

glorious and wonderful he is. So would you just lean in with me

just for the next few moments as we.

Into what I believe the Lord has for us today.

Before I get into that, something I wanted to put on your radar, and I've

put on the radar. If you've been getting the church email, I've been telling you

about this, but we're gonna do a conference here. And it's not this, it's not

the rabbi. That happens on Thursday nights with

Pastor Barbee. I encourage you to do that. But let's see

here. We have Thursday night slides up

there. Okay, so they're gonna fix that for me. Oh, they're telling me I'm good.

Let's try that. Now, the Abide conference is

happening in March, and I just want you. The registration is open and I just

want you to pray about if you have capacity to join us on

Friday, Saturday and Sunday. That weekend we're gonna have a special time

with some special speakers, and we're just gonna lean into this principle

of abide a little deeper, and we want you to be a part of it

now. We wanna prepare for you. And so we do want you to register now.

The conference is gonna look a little different than it has in the past. We're

gonna be doing a session on Friday night, and then Saturday, we'

all day from the morning, afternoon. Rich, rich things. I was so excited

for some of the speakers that said, yes, I've got a word from the Lord.

And so we're still working on some of the details, but we've got that. The

Saturday night session, and then we'll have our services on Sunday. And I believe

that that Sunday is also open table. So it's an opportunity for us to

connect, and so come be a part of that time together. Pastor

Barbee and I were talking earlier this week just about

abiding in him, just being present in him. And so, man,

what an opportunity for us to lean into that. So we are

gonna continue our series, Abide.

And so you don't have to stand, but I do want you

to read with me. Read the Word of God, and they'll put that up on

the screen. So let's read what the Word of God says. We're actually gonna go

and look at Matthew 13 and John 1 this morning as we

step into what the Lord has for us. Here we go. In the

beginning was the Word, and the was with God.

And the Word was God. He was with God in the

beginning. Through him, all

things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has

been made. In him was life, and that life was the

light of all mankind. The light shines in the

darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And then from

Matthew 13, a farmer went out to sow his seed.

As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the pat, and

the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky

places where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly

because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the

plants were scorched and they withered because

they had no root. Other seed fell among the

thorns which grew up and choked the plants. Still other

seed fell on good soil where it Produced a crop

160 or 30 times what was sown.

Whoever has ears, let them hear. And, Father, that is my

prayer today. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

Not just words that are distraction or

from false prophets and false words, but the word of the Lord. Let it be

heard today and let it change our lives and our hearts for

eternity. God, we trust that you will do that today for us. In

Jesus name, Amen. Amen. I would normally say you may be

seated, but you may continue sipping your hot chocolate this morning. Okay,

so we're continuing the Abide series here. And just

to review. So today we're actually gonna end this

introduction, if you will, that I've been setting us up for. Because

as we discussed last week, when Jesus talks about abide, and

what we did is we used a different word, remain, in

that when Jesus says remain, that's not the starting point. The starting point with

Jesus is not remain. And so there's been a setup here. And so

on week one, we talked about, you belong to a kingdom and you have

a K. And guys we do. We belong to an

amazing, incredible kingdom who has a king. And

here's the thing about this kingdom, with the king, we don't have a choice

that he's the king. This isn't a democracy. I don't go and vote

a ballot. And guess what? I may have an opinion about him being

my king, but here's the truth of the matter. He's the king

regardless, and I belong to his kingdom. But here's the great, glorious

thing about this wonderful king. My king knows my

name and he knows about my life. He knows about my

spouse and my kids. He knows about every circumstance. I have

a king who loves me and you do too. And we belong to that kingdom.

Guys. We have a king and he rules and reigns over our lives.

But the problem is in all of his goodness. We tend to

turn away and turn our back to his goodness, to his kingship in

our life, because of the peripheral world around us. Guys, we live in

this world, but we're a part of a kingdom. It begs this

question and this thought, it says it was

about learning how to live as God's people inside a culture that did

not share their faith. This was what the exiles faced

over when we read in Jeremiah and Babylon. And is this not just the

description of our world? Every day I contend with this. I wanna

live as one of God's people. And I do it in the context of a

world and a culture that doesn't want anything to do with him. But. But

God gives me the power to lean into him and the strength

to be a part of this world, in this world. That's where I live, it's

where I'm planted. But I belong to his kingdom. I belong to his

kingdom. And he certainly is a king. And so the week one,

as we looked at that, we looked at a creating margin,

creating space. I believe that we are so terribly

distracted. We are so convinced that we've gotta go, go, go,

go. And then there might be a thought process. Well, if I

in the order it's supposed to be, then maybe I've got it all together.

But we don't leave room for God to work when we're in control of anything.

And so the idea or the purpose, I believe the intent here is that we

would empty our jars out and bring in empty vessels

every day so that the Lord can fill them up. And so

we've been evaluating our capacity. And I appreciate the conversations that I've had

with some of you where you said, you know, the Lord has actually told me

to lay this Down. And for some of you, the Lord said, pick this up.

And it's been beautiful. Because when God's grace, he gives you

everything you need to do what you're doing in

your walk. And so then we have this question, because we live in the

world, it says, will we be formed by the world we live in, or will

we remain rooted in the kingdom to which we belong?

You know, I don't know about you, but I used to have a propensity that

when I didn't like what was going on, I just ran. I'm gone.

I don't have to put up with this frustration. I don't have to put up

with this hurt. I don't have to put up with this pain. And I learned

the hard way that. That God actually has purpose in the pain

sometimes. He has purpose in the hurt sometimes. And

he wants us to stay so that he can mature us. You know,

we are not believers just living our life off of milk. I'll tell you right

now, Eliana's at home and she is drinking milk. Like, she can drink some

milk. She can down some milk people, okay? I can't give her a piece of

steak right now. As much as I want to. Try to. Try to sneak a

cookie in her mouth. Her mama would slap that out of my hand so fast.

As much as I want to, I can't give it because she's not ready for

that. She's not mature enough. But, man, sometimes I look at the church

and I see people who should be eating steak in the Lord should be eating

some hamburgers in the Lord, and you're sucking down that bottle of milk like none

other. It's time to mature. It's time to look at our lives and say,

am I going to remain rooted in the moment of hard things? Because

he will sustain us, and he grows us in those places. He grows

us in those hard trials, in those hard places where he says, I want you

to remain. But you know what else is true? It's not. Not just about the

hard things. Here's what else is true in my life when I stay

rooted. The Lord provides people, trusted

voices, like a Barbie, like an Allen, like a Will, like a Justin,

like people, like a Jonathan in my life, that they're not going anywhere.

They're right there with me. What is it like to uproot in a hard

circumstance and leave the family? You've known all the trusted voices, to

go into an environment with people you don't know at all and let them speak

into your life? Boy, that's a recipe for disaster, in my opinion.

Stay rooted. We want to stay rooted.

That's the key. That's the call. And so

last week, and as I suggested just a moment ago, last week we realized

remain is not the place that Jesus starts with. The first thing that he says

to the disciples when he sees them people, he says. He says, follow me.

Follow me. So we learned we cannot remain before we make the

choice to follow. And so Jesus arrives on the

with the people, and he commissions them. He invites them to this life

of following Him. Now, last week, we also learned that

Jesus, physical Jesus is not here anymore.

And we talked about the delineation between Father, God,

the Holy Spirit and Jesus. And so this ball here represents

Jesus. I can feel it. I can touch it. It's his

physical. He lived for 33 years on the earth, three years of ministry on the

earth, and he died. But he didn't stay there. The Bible

tells us that he rose again. He's resurrected now. And where is he sitting? At

the right hand of Father God. But there's also another part of this

Godhead, and it is the Holy Spirit. And the water here represents

the Holy Spirit. And so we have God the Father, the one with the

authority. God the Son, who lived an impeccable life, did what

his father told him to do and died on our behalf. And then he left.

But he said, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I'm not gonna leave you as

orphans. I'm gonna give you the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Guys, might I remind you that you need the

Holy Spirit? Because loving Jesus looks like obeying

his commands. Loving Jesus looks like obeying his commands.

And I'm gonna tell you right now, my propensity is not to obey anyone or

anything. I need the Holy Spirit. And if

I'm connected to the Holy Spirit, if I lean into the power of the

Holy Spirit, I start to walk on my journey. And the Word says

this verse, it says, the steps of the righteous are

ordered. He has good things ahead for me. As long as I will keep in

step with the Holy Spirit. I'll come upon maybe

that moment of a slip, or that moment of lust or pride

or cheating or stealing, whatever it is, whatever it is, the vice that

you've had to contend with in this dark, evil world. The Holy Spirit.

You bump up against that thing and you have victory. You have victory over

it. Not just in that moment, but you're connected to the one who has victory

over everything. Everything and everyone.

We win in the end. I want to be Connected to that God. What about

you? So, hey, you need the Holy Spirit. And if you were here, sitting here

this morning, I would say, look at your neighbor and say, you need the Holy

Spirit. It's that important. You need the Holy Spirit in your life.

So what's the job of the Holy Spirit? Well, the primary job of the Holy

Spirit is to point people to Jesus, to point you

and others to Jesus Christ. That's his primary. His

primary role. Everything in my life should be about pointing to Him.

He's the one that's going to be enthroned. And so we've started

this introduction. We've looked at capacity. We've looked about

being rooted because we have a propensity to uproot and run away. We looked at

the fact that I can't do anything on my own. My flesh I can't do.

I need power. And he's given us the gift of the Holy Spirit. So where

does that leave us today? Capacity. Enough time to actually stop

and consider. Stay rooted, stay planted.

God has something there. I have power in the Holy Spirit and where

that draws us today. And I believe it's probably one of the most important places

for us to be at this moment is the word of God. It's

the word of God. All of this is a setup to hear the

Word, the truth of the Scripture. And so we looked at Matthew,

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

chapter 13, and Jesus is telling a very familiar story.

I'm sure that you've heard it. He talks about a farmer going out and sowing

seed. And he says that some of the seed falls on the path, some of

it falls on the rocky ground, some on the thorns, and some will fall on

the good soil. And can I just tell you, and I

know Barbie has alluded to this on Thursday, if you've been here or watched the

messages. I love this teacher. I love the teacher,

Jesus. Don't you. Don't you just love him? Because he doesn't leave anything

just hanging out there. He wants you to understand.

He's not trying to trick us. He truly wants us to understand. I love

how he tells the story and then a little bit later he explains it. He

just. He's so good to us. He doesn't just leave things for us to

figure out. But what I want us to. But before we unpackage that, what I

want us to understand is that it's not about the

seed. It's about the soil. This

parable, this story. It's not about the seed. You hear the word seed. The seed,

the seed, the seed. The farmer has the seed. And so

often, I don't know about you, but, you know, sometimes my wife and I,

we might get in a disagreement and we'll be talking, and sometimes I can make

about the issue that it's not really about, and she'll say to me, that's not

at all what we're talking about here, you know, and she'll get me back on

the path here. Guys, we can sometimes read scripture and focus on the wrong

part. It's not that the seed isn't important. The seed represents the word of

God, but the point of the story is the soil.

The point of this story, the point of this parable is the soil. And

Jesus is trying to talk to the people about the heart, because

the soil represents the condition of the heart.

The condition of your heart determines your capacity

to receive the Word of God. The condition of your

heart, it determines the capacity to

receive the Word of God. And so there's a parallel here with

Israel where we talked about their exile in

Jeremiah. We talked about that. And I'm gonna try to run side by side through

this whole parable because I just. See, I just have to stop and say this

because I love this. I love this Word. The Word, the

entire word of God can speak to your life. And

if you pay attention, you can connect things in the New Testament to the Old

Testament, Old Testament to the New Testament. It's all about Jesus. And we're going to

talk about in one John or in John here in just a minute. If we

have a tangible. If we want a tangible representation of Jesus, this is it.

This is it. He's the Word. And we can touch this, and we can feel.

We can feel this. So Babylon has become

the environment, the environment in which Israel has been

exiled, and the soil becomes the heart.

So here's what I want us to really lean on and understand on this first

point. The truth of God's Word. The

Word, it becomes the dividing line

between those who have been fooled by the world

and its antics and the kingdom, those

who flourish in the kingdom and the kingdom of God and its truth. I'm going

to say that again the way I have it written here. The truth of

God's Word becomes the dividing line between who has been

fooled by the world and who flourishes in the kingdom

of God. We've journeyed the last three

weeks to get right here because here's the point. What's the point of

talking about capacity, being rooted and having the power of the Holy Spirit? And it's

so that we're not being deceived. We don't

wanna be deceived. We want to be living as agents of

truth, living on a foundation of truth. But here's the

thing, we have access to the truth. But just because I have access

to something doesn't mean that it's meaningful in my life. So I've

gotta create the space, I've gotta stay rooted. You're gonna see all these tied together

here. So today I wanna walk through this parable and show you how it lines

up with the journey that we've been on. So the first thing that we look

at is the soil is the path. He says that the. Which is the word

falls onto the path in Jesus.

Explanation of that. And I have it on the slide here. It says this.

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does

not understand it, the evil one comes and

snatches away what has been sown. Do you know.

Excuse me. Do you know that when I've preached before, there have been

people that have fallen asleep. Now, I know I'm not the most

entertaining speaker or whatnot, but there have been people

who literally fall asleep. And can I tell you, most of the world is

sleeping. I'm reminded of Pastor Murray talking about a very poignant

moment in her walking journey where Pastor Ronnie just said the words

sleep on, sleep on. And boy,

I don't want to be somebody who's donning the footsteps of a church

under the truth of God's word. And it is meaningless to me because I don't

have the capacity to actually understand and know what the word of God

says. And so all I've done is I've come into the church to check it

off my little T shirt box to say, yeah, I did that thing went there

was with the crowd. But guys, when we hear the word of God,

it should excite us because we're talking about the very

Jesus that we say we love. The very God we say

we love the very word, the word of God. This is

Babylon before the exile. That the soil is the.

It's the path. It's hard, it's compacted.

The seed can't get in. And it's not penetrating anywhere

because there's not capacity for it to do so. They were

listening to false prophets. This is the place, the

hard path. The seed falling on the path is. I'm gonna listen

to anything that caters to whatever I want to do.

That's where I'm going to go. And the seed doesn't take where it just lands,

it's just there it's like. It's almost. It's almost as if

it shouldn't have even been sown in the first place. Because the

path is so hard. The path is so hard.

The truth was being presented. Jeremiah, Isaiah. The

truth was being presented. They didn't have ears to hear it.

The truth was there. And we are in a evil, dark,

dying world. And the truth is being presented. And there are

groves of people out there. Sleep on.

Sleep on. Why is it important for you and me to grab ahold

of this word that we're talking about? Because not only

do we have the responsibility for our own lives, he's using us as

agents of his grace world. Because there's a world

that needs salvation. There's a world, guys, I hate to

tell you, it's not about you and it's not about me. As much as I

try to make my world about me, it's not about me. I'm so

small. I'm not insignificant. I'm not insignificant because

he knows my name. But in relation to everything,

I'm so small. I'm so small. And so are you. But we have a

God who takes small things and makes extraordinary use of.

Will you allow him to do that in your life? But the path is there.

And it's hard. And here's the mindset, and I just want to

be plain. You cannot expect the benefits of a kingdom that you are

not ready to commit to. You know, my wife and I, we

run a school. And about maybe 10 years ago, we

took a left turn in the direction of the school. But prior to that, I

would be in meetings with people and, you know, hey, I believe we

have a pretty good school. Okay? I really do. We're not perfect, but we got

a good school. We got a good program. What would happen is I would get

in rooms with parents and kids that had made some choices that were out of

the bounds of the expectations that we had. And I would have to say,

this is probably not the place for you. And you know what? Those people would

get so angry with me instead of the decision and the choice

that was made to render that consequence. Isn't that crazy? What we

do, we look at what's not really the problem here.

And here's the deal. Here's the deal. Here's the deal. What the people

wanted was the benefit of our school without committing to

the expectations we have for the students. You can't walk

into a situation and expect the benefits without the commitment. And the same is true

in the kingdom. The same is true in the kingdom. We can't be people

who are expecting to have the benefit of this

incredible star breathing God and not commit to his kingdom.

That's not how it works. It's simply not how it works. The

hearts of Israel had become like spiritual

pavement. And that's why we started with margin.

I just remember when I was talking about the Israelites going through the gate and

Jeremiah's there and the Lord's saying, talk to them about the Sabbath, guys. And this

is a reminder. This is not a January 1, 2026

thing. This is a constant reminder to center us

that we have to slow down and stop. The world is not slowing down

down, it is speeding up. It's going faster.

We have to be a people within that context that know how to slow down

enough to know that we're hearing the voice of God, that we're not

hearing the ancillary, the extra voices, the false prophets, but we are

actually hearing the word of God. And that's why we started with margin.

Because there are pathways that are hard out there that God wants to turn

into good soil. You cannot hear from God when

everything else is louder. We live in a world that's vying for your

attention. Who has your attention today? Who has your attention

this morning? Is it the God of the universe? Or is it all of the

other things around, all the bells and whistles, the cell phones, the computer? There's so

many. There's a list of things I could get. All good, fine things,

but paling in comparison to this God we say we serve.

When we slow down enough, our heart is in a position

and that's who we want to be, people who can receive the word of God.

That's the hard path. The second soil that's talked about here are the rocks.

And Jesus explains about this soil. He says this. The seed falling on

the rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at

once receives it with joy. But since they have no root,

they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution come

because of the Word, they quickly fall away. Oh, my goodness. Do you see

the parallel here? Do you see the parallel of where we've been? This is a

soil that receives the Word quickly. It receives the Word very

quickly, emotionally and with passion. These would be

people who just springboard into church. These are for me as a pastor, these are

the people who show up for a moment and then they

disappear. And then they show up again excited, and

then they disappear. And usually when they're here excited, they wanna go conquer

the world. They feel like they're supposed to have a platform within three seconds of

coming back to the Lord, and then they disappear. They're passionate,

they're emotional. They've heard the word.

These people also, I think, are. I think I would describe this

also as people who are joyless Christians. Have you ever met a

joyless Christian, an unkind Christian? These are people who

have ascribed to the Lord, but the way they live outside there

doesn't match anything that they're praising God for and hear.

That's the difference. This is like the seed is there. They know the truth.

They've heard it. But, boy, their life does

not line up in any way. There's confusion there. They get

excited because they can get behind a good guitar solo or a good

piano or maybe an entertaining speaker at that,

and they can shout an amen. But when they get out there, there's some other

things coming out of their mouth. This is

the rocky. The rocky. The rocky

path that the Lord is talking about here. And so remember that

part where we talked about repentance? Remember at the end of that message where

I talked about repentance being changing the way you think and doing something about

it? Israel had a pattern when trouble came. The

pattern was, here's trouble. And so repent. We are so sorry.

God, Lord, save us. And then they would turn away, turn, turn

back to the Lord. And they would turn away from their sin. And when everything

became okay again, when peace came, they take off again.

And you see this in the Old Testament over and over and over again. And

let me tell you, it's easy for you and I to criticize Israel for doing

that, but you and I have done the exact same thing. We have done the

exact same thing. Remember, remember the Lord

in the midst of trial. Remember the Lord. Remember what he's done

in that time of peace. There's a reason there's peace there. There's a reason why

the foundation is when Barvey was talking about, we have not had to

worry. There's a reason there's no worry. It's because there's a

great, glorious God involved. But the minute you turn away and try to do

things on your own, he's not involved. He's a jealous God. He wants

to be on the throne. He wants to be in. He wants to be

not just a part of your life, he wants to be the one driving, driving

the train of your life. So that's why we talked about staying planted.

Here's the thing. Shallow soil looks faithful until the heat comes.

Shallow, it looks faithful until the heat Comes boy, you press you, you know, that's

why I opened the series and I said, man, if I offend you, would you

come back to Springhouse? Because there's some people I'm talking to that are on

shallow soil. The minute they don't like something that they. The

minute they don't like something they hear, they go somewhere else. And here, guess what?

In Tennessee, see, there's a church on every corner. Find whatever brand you

want. You can get anybody to say whatever you want. You can tailor, make

your faith all you want and God not be anything part of it.

Shallow soil. Jesus is warning about Jesus, you know, he's

teaching, he's warning about this. This is problematic. And this was

Israel's problem. Roots are not built in moments, they're built in

seasons. It takes time to be rooted in. So many of us would jet

and jump the ship the minute we begin to feel something that doesn't suggest coming

comfort. I'm going to say something and you're not going to like it. Are you

ready? Here we go. Jesus didn't come to give you a better life.

He came to change your life. He did. Well, what about that

passage where he says, I came to give you abundant life? Here's the thing.

Our definition of abundant life and his. Two different things.

Two very different things. This is not a

better your life so that you can have so much more in this world,

so that you can feel good in this world. He's actually trying to get you

to look other, other than this world. And in that process, in

that process, he's come to change your life. Are you letting him change your life?

Are you letting him change your life? Soil number three. It's the thorns.

Okay, this is interesting. The seed falling among the thorns

refers to someone who hears the word. But the worries of this

life and the deceitfulness of wealth

choked the word, making it unfruit fruitful.

Now, don't just hone in on the wealth, money part. Wealth could

be anything that you've invested, entrenched yourself into that you trust more

than you trust God. And so what are those

things that we place so much faith in, so much time

and so. And we're not. It's that principle that I said last week of

God, I want to follow you, but I want to bring the empire and the

castle that I've built with me. And he says, no, I want you to lay

that down. You remember the parable of the young rich ruler?

He had obeyed all the rules. He did everything. He checked the list. I Mean,

good, he was righteous. What else is required?

Go sell everything you own and follow me.

How does that strike you this morning? How does this strike

you today? When the Lord says, I want you to surrender it all.

I really, truly want you to surrender. But, God, you don't understand. I don't know

how we're going to make ends meet if I surrender this. He says, I do.

He says, I'm the guy that owns the cattle on the hill. But

here's what we also don't take time to really consider.

Maybe. Maybe in the midst of you letting go,

he's actually trying to refine you from cluttering up your homes and your

barns and your houses with a bunch of stuff you don't need. See, it's not

just about him meeting us in this castle we built here

in the world. It's about us becoming like him. Matthew

6 says, Seek first the kingdom of God and all this will be added to

you. It says, do not store up treasures here on earth that where

moth and vermin destroy, but store up your treasure in

heaven. The things that. Listen, when you are looking at somebody in this

world right now, can think of somebody. I can think of a few somebodies. I

look and go, God, they are no more following you than the man on the

moon. And they are seen so blessed. So. And he said, this is what he

said. It's so convicting. They are so blessed. God, he said, can you define

blessing for me? I said, oh, Lord, forgive me, forgive

me in the world's eyes. Yeah, they're big bank

accounts. Big bank accounts. They don't have what I have.

I've got the God of the universe and I don't want to trade them out

for anything. So go on and buy your big cars and buy your big

things and do all of that stuff, but you're headed toward

destruction. It's not going to bring you peace and joy. And that's what this soil

is, these thorny soils, it actually gets down.

You actually know the word of God. And actually there's things that sprout up,

but there's some thorns in it. There's some places in it that aren't

supposed to be there. There. God tells his people,

the exiles, he says, I want you to do this. Build houses, plant gardens,

but do not listen to the false prophets that are among you.

The danger wasn't persecution. Listen, this is important,

guys, listen, as you're sitting on your couch, sipping your latte, I'm going to tell

you, the danger is comfort. And I'm guilty.

The danger is comfort, guys. We can't

allow the comforts of this world to supersede

what our call is and what he's asked us to do. That prayer that we

prayed at the beginning of service, give us eyes and ears

and a heart posture to notice the needs around us.

Most needs in my life that I see come at inconvenient

moments. They cause if I'm going to respond, that means I have to

give up something that I want to do. And you know what? The

incredible thing is not only, okay, look at me, I've done a good deed.

I've gone and done this almost all the time. God

has something for me in that as well. He's trying to teach me something.

Making that call, showing up for somebody, doing that thing. Now, how do I

know? How do I recognize that there's a need

and how do I have the tenacity to actually respond

to it? This is where we talked about the Holy Spirit. You

need the Holy Spirit. Can I tell you this happened to a.

I heard this story, and it happened to a pastor. And I'll tell you the

truth. It happened to me, and I couldn't believe it. I said, no, I'm just

thinking of this because of the story. And the Holy Spirit said, do you know

my voice? And it's silly. I went to the freezer to get ice cream,

and I put it in my. I got the ice cream, I pulled it. And

the Holy Spirit said, I don't want you to eat that. And I don't remember

where that. I don't remember what pastor. There's a pastor that happened to. There's a

story that somebody shared here. And I thought about that story at that moment, and

the Holy Spirit said, I want you to eat that ice cream. And I had

to literally delineate. Lord, is this you or the story? And I

said, you know, I do not want a chance this not being youg voice. I

put it away. And sure enough, when I went, listen, I'm not gonna go into

why. How I knew it was the Holy Spirit. It was clearly

the Holy Spirit. Guys, do you know his voice? He

cares about every little detail. And so

we look at this, the Holy Spirit. Here's the thing. The Holy

Spirit gives you the power to focus on the kingdom to which you belong. Belong.

Instead of the kingdom of the world. He gives you the power to focus on

the kingdom to which you belong.

Some of you need to stop stealing Netflix subscriptions.

Some of you need to stop allowing yourself to be convinced that

you're owed something from the world just because you're not being caught and

justifying these decisions, justifying the decisions

just because you might not get caught or it seems right, guys, I can

justify myself out of a bag. It doesn't make it right. The Holy Spirit speaking

to you. You, I would say at this point, it's

silent in this room. It really is silent in this room because it's the

conviction of the Holy Spirit. I want to look like Jesus. I don't

want to look like the world. And I pray that that's who you would want

to be too. That's the delineation between these thorns.

Soil number four talks about the good soil. There's a

good soil. This is what he says. But the seed falling on good soil

refers to someone who hears the word and understands it.

This is the one who produces a crop yielding 160 and 30

times what is sown.

We want to be about a life that produces, that

produces and that produces, not produces in the world things that

are going to die, but it produces things that stick around for

eternity. I want to be about eternal purposes. That's

what I want my life really to be about. Now. Now do I succumb to

worldly things, man? All the time I have to wrestle with that. I need the

Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit to help me. I want to be good soil.

I want to be good soil. So we look at the. Okay, they're exile.

They're in exile. Have you ever read the story of Daniel? Have

you ever read the story of Esther? God's people who had

a heart posture of good soil in the midst of exile?

They thrived. And can I tell you, you can thrive in the middle of

living in this wicked world. You can thrive in the Lord

Jesus Christ. You can thrive on this planet, on this globe right now.

You can thrive. He will give you favor. He will do some things that are

extraordinary, that will blow your mind and give you testimony,

testimonies that say things like. And my teacher said to me,

every Friday you get some ice cream. She

didn't talk to her teacher about that. I'm sure

you can't make this stuff up. The Holy Spirit is active and

alive and real. And he's real.

So the good story. I want you to understand the good soil.

Nothing changed about the seed. Do you

understand? Nothing changed. Whatever the soil was, whether it

was hard, thorny, rocky or good soil, the seed was the same. The word

is the same. Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth

and the life. The he never changed he says, I am the same. Yesterday,

today, and forevermore. He doesn't change. The Word doesn't change. Now

we want it to change. We like to form it around our lives.

But the Word of God is the Word of God. It doesn't change. The seed

did not change. Nothing changed about the seed. What changed was

the soil. The soil changed. Changed. It's the

soil. And the thing in us that must change, guys, is our

heart. The soil represents the heart. And I

don't know how that happens until, in this

world we live in, until you make room,

until you stay a little while, until you

receive the helper.

And then you get to know the Word.

Until you get to know the Word.

The Word of God flourishes when the heart is in a

posture to receive. The Word of God flourishes

when the heart is in a posture to receive.

That's good soil. When I was. When I was

in sixth grade, I'm gonna tell my parents here. Don't judge them, okay? But

when I was in sixth grade, my brother was in fourth grade. My parents worked

third shift. They had to work to make ends meet and all that. And they

both worked third shift. And they left us at home from 12 to

6. And we would sleep through the night. They would come wake us up in

the morning. We'd go to school. School's across the road from us. I had a

King James Bible. I had a King James Bible. And every

night before they left, before I would pray that I would go to sleep before

they left because I didn't want to be awake. And I took that King James.

Have you ever had a stuffed animal you slept with? I slept with my King

James Bible. And I'm telling you that Bible. I don't know exactly where that Bible

is right now. I can tell you the COVID is all bent out of shape.

There's pages altered. Because I literally slept with the Word of God

because he brought me comfort. And the truth

of God's Word will bring you comfort,

guys. I love the Word of God.

Here's the thing. We don't read the Bible for

knowledge. You read the Bible to have an encounter with the

Holy God. To have an encounter with the holy

God, Jesus. In John,

he says, I am the Word. He was the Word. He was there at the

beginning. If we had the closest thing, I believe, that we have to

a tangible Jesus word, all of

this points to him. All of this points to him.

In John 1, it says, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was

the light of men. The light shines in the darkness. And the

darkness has not overcome it. Guys, go ahead and turn off the lights for me

now. I don't know. Okay, I guess you can still see if you are watching

on camera back here, but it's dark in here and if you were here, you'd

feel this darkness. Okay, it's dark. This

world is darkness. And guess what? This world

also has a king. And the Bible calls him the Father

of lies. The Father of lies. And when we succumb

to the world and we bow down to the world and we do the things

in the world, we are bowing down to the Father of lies. Some of us,

so much so that we have believed what the Father of lies says about us.

But God says, I am light. Turn on that light. God

says I am light. And anywhere there is darkness, there is an

opportunity to find the light. If you are walking in the middle of

temptation, find the pathway out. He always gives one.

Find where he's illuminating the path and step into it. But here's the thing.

I don't know what it is about us, but we tend to dance around the

light or we tend to go, here I am

and then out again. Why in the world would we have one foot? You

know what the Bible tells us about somebody that has their foot in the world

and their foot in the kingdom? That's a double minded man. And you know what

a double minded man is? Unstable in all of his ways. Unstable

in all of his ways. We are invited to be

in the light. And being in the light requires us,

listen, requires us to understand and know truth.

Because the world is telling us what a truth is, what a light is, but

it's actually real. It says that the enemy, the

devourer, the Satan, he masquerades.

He pretends that he knows that he's the truth and he's not the

truth. How am I going to know the truth of God's Word without

the Holy Spirit? I've got to slow down. I've got to stay rooted. I need

the Holy Spirit so that I can know that this

Word is true. I can allow it to be written on the flesh tablets of

my heart. I can live by. I can trust in the Lord with

all my heart and not lean on my own understanding. He can make all of

my paths straight. Because I can trust in every word that's

written here. I don't have to try to decipher it. It's simple.

It's God's word and it's truth. And here's the thing I wanted to say this

this morning. If you think

that reading God's word is boring, it's because your

relationship with Jesus is so shallow.

When we go into reading the Word of God,

it's not like reading a book. I read books. There's lots of books. This is

not a book. This is alive and active. It's a

person. So when I read the book, it's as if I'm

interacting with Jesus. I'm interacting with the

Lord. I'm getting to know his heart. And here's what's wonderful.

He's telling me, telling me about mine. He's telling me about

my life. He's wooing me into the light and he says, kevin, I've

got great glorious things for you. And guess what? You think your life

is something here in this short little lived life on this planet.

I've got an eternity for you. There's gonna come a time where I'm gonna,

you know, that pain and that sorrow and that suffering. There's gonna come a time

when I'm gonna wipe every tear from every eye. Can't you? Can't you?

But can you believe it? Our great glorious God. And you know what else it

says in here? He says that he loves me. Do you know there's so many

times. There's been so long in my life, there's been so many times when I

did not feel loved. I didn't believe that anybody knew my name.

Truly, he knows my name. He loves me like none other.

He has things to say about me. There's times when I'm stepping into darkness and

I'm believing this Father of lies. And he says, open up the truth.

I want to tell you something about what I see in you, my child. And

he's saying the same thing today. Guys, listen to you today. He's

saying these same things. Guys, listen. I love the Word of God.

I believe that the Word of God, having a relationship

with the Word of God is essential in the life of a believer.

It's essential. I don't

know another way to say it would be, okay, I want you not to

eat anything or drink anything for six weeks and tell me how you feel.

I mean, it's that important. It's the sustenance that we have

as believers. Word. Understanding it. And you turn on the

lights now. Understanding it and believing and

ordering our lives, doing what it says. Guys,

it's so important. It's so important.

So here's the thing. We come in here week

after week after week

and we present the Word of God.

And you might wonder, well, why am I not connecting

with it? Or why do I not honestly

desire to have a relationship with this word?

Have you made room to slow down?

Have you camped for a moment? Some would say I've never heard the voice

of the Lord. Well, have you slowed down enough to

actually listen? Have you stayed long

enough to hear his voice? Have you

asked to receive the helper? Guys, there's moments when

I need direction from the Lord. I have to say, lord, would you speak to

me right now? Lord, would you direct my path?

Guys? And I know that there's just. There can be

a sermon about how God doesn't answer sometimes. And, I mean, there's a period in

scripture where he's silent, you know, and things like that. In my life, I

tend to believe. I choose to believe he's speaking all of the time. It's actually

more about whether I'm paying attention. He speaks so often to

me, and a lot of times he speaks through his Word. I can't tell you.

We're on this Bible reading plan. I was, oh, there's Will. Where's Jonathan?

I thought. Jonathan. I was having a conversation with Pastor Jonathan. And

literally, literally, the scripture we read that morning, I read that morning,

just literally comes up in the conversation. Have this ever happened to you? You're just

reading the scripture, Will, and you're just going through, and it's like, I literally. I'm

in this situation. I'm in a problem. I'm on a thing. And it's literally the

word that you read that morning because you. What? Why? Why?

Listen, we took the time, right? We

took the time. You stayed planted. You're

listening to the Holy Spirit. And now your responsibility is to do what the word

of God says, and it will produce something wonderful. What

is it? What is he going to produce? It's going to produce fruit.

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. You. And when you

do, you will produce fruit. Listen, the charge is not for you to

go out and make fruit happen. Fruit just happens

when we remain. Okay, we're going to be talking about that,

but we can't even get to this place of remaining guys, until we slow down

enough, stay rooted, know the Holy Spirit, and understand that we have access

to this incredible, incredible word. So

let me challenge you this morning just for a moment. I'm going to be quiet

for a moment here. The people that are listening to this message

with you, your kids, your spouse,

what's your relationship to the Word? Go ahead and discuss that right now. What's your

relationship to the Word? Of God. Do you read it daily?

Sometimes. Talk about that for a minute

here.

I did not do that to shame anybody. I did

not that. Because to me, it's like me handing you

food if you're starving, handing you water

when you're thirsty. This is important.

And you have the ability to change the trajectory of your life

by getting into the truth of God's word. Commit to it.

Start now. Start today. You know, sometimes we use the excuse, oh, I went to

church. I don't need to read. I read on Sundays, too. I

know better than anybody else, but I read on Sundays. Here's my regimen. I get

up in the morning before the kids get up. I go downstairs. I make

my Guys, I make my coffee. I do have coffee with the Word. Anybody else?

Okay. I have coffee with the Word. Okay, But I sit down there, and guys,

I don't spend an hour or two. Sometimes there are moments like that,

okay? I sit down 10, 15 minutes, I open the

Word, and I got a highlighter. And before

I even start reading, reading, the first thing I do,

created margin. I planted myself. I say, holy Spirit,

you love me. Would you speak to me today?

And I'm spending time with my best friend in that moment.

And I open the Word and I just start to highlight. And it's like these

words jump off the page and they change my heart, my life, and my perspective.

And then I set that aside, and I've got a commentary. A big,

thick. Pastor Bruce gave it to me. Mark Arthur commentary.

And it's what it is. It's actually the Word again. And it just

goes into more context so I can better understand if there's a question,

like, I'm maybe curious of the timing or the place this

happened, and it dives in a little deeper. And then at the end, I

say, lord, thank you. Would you use this truth this morning

to transform my life? Now, that's my. That's. That's what I do.

Will could come. Barbie could come. Will could come. Every. All the pat. They could

come and share. This is what we do. Okay, I don't do that. Listen, I

don't do that because I'm a pastor.

I do that because I'm a believer in Jesus. And he's my.

The Lord is my best friend, and I want to know him more. I need

him, and you do, too. Make a

commitment to be in the Word. Make a commitment. It is so

important. So in keeping with our journey,

next week I'm going to invite Pastor Justin to come, and he's going to talk

about what it looks like to be intimate with the Lord. Intimate

places. Intimacy with this friend that we have.

Let's worship.