Kingdom Come - Is Your Heart Ready for the Gospel? - Charlie Houck

Hey. Good morning. If you have a Bible with you, open with me to

Matthew chapter 13. You can open up or unlock your device and

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

meet me there. We'll also have the words of Scripture on screen.

We're going to read through Matthew 13:1 through 23. We read

Matthew 13:1–23

Matthew 13. That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat

beside the sea, and great crowds gathered about him. So that

he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood on

the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying,

a sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seeds fell along

the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell

on rocky ground where they did not have much soil, and immediately

they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun

rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered

away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and

choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain,

some a hundredfold, some 60, some 30. He who has ears, let him

hear. Then the disciples came and said to him, why do you speak

to them in parables? And he answered them to you it has been

given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. But to them

it has not been given. For for to the one who has more will be given,

and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even

what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them

in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they

do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case

the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says, you will indeed

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

perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their

ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest

they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and

understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.

But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears, for they

hear. For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people

long to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what

you hear and did not hear it. Here then, the parable of the Sower.

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand

it, the evil One comes and snatches away what has been sown

in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. And as for what

was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and

immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root in himself,

but endures for a while. And when tribulation or persecution arises,

he, on account of the Word, immediately he falls away. As for

what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the Word.

But the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke

the word, and it proves unfruitful as what was sown on good

soil. This is the one who hears the Word and understands it.

He indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold,

in another, 60, and in another 30. You pray with me in response

to the word of God. King Jesus, we turn now to your Word.

We know that you are the Word. Lord, we need more of you. Holy Spirit,

would you be present in this place? Would you give us ears to

hear, open our hearts and souls to receive and be changed by

the Gospel? King Jesus, all scripture points to you. And we read

now your very words, the words of the King of the Universe preserved

for us 2000 years later. Would you be as clear in the teaching of

your Word today as you were when you spoke these words 2000 years

ago? King Jesus, I have nothing to offer your people other

than you. So would you be present in this time? Take control

of this space. Guide us to you that, Lord, we could be fruitful

as you have called us to be. We give this to you and pray these

things in Jesus name. Amen. Matthew 7. You guys probably heard

this a few weeks ago. Jesus said this. He said so. Every healthy

tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. Every

tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into

the fire. And thus you will recognize them by their fruit. By

the way, if some scripture's not on screen, that's my fault, not

their fault. Today I like to go all over the place. I was thinking

about it as I got ready to teach today and it's good to be back

with you. Like Jason said, my name is Charlie Houck. I have served

as pastor and church planter of Mesa Church in San Diego, California

for the last five years. See, some folks who were just there with

me last week, which is awesome. And it's always good to

be back with you every summer as I have the honor of delivering

God's word. And honor I'm not worthy of. And I was thinking about

my experience here last year. See, I was here before you a year

ago teaching and I preached a sermon. And honestly, it was a difficult

message for me to preach. Cause I was a time in my life when

I was wrestling with some big Questions, like truthfully big questions

about fruitfulness. I'd been in San Diego for four years and I

would kind of say the party line that every church planner says,

like, hey, it's not about numbers, it's not about success,

it's about faithfulness. But the truth is I was living a life

as a pastor and church planter that, that felt a lot less successful

than what I had imagined. We're struggling financially, struggling

in my family, my family was hurting. Like, we just didn't have

a lot of close friendships in our church. And outside of our church,

I saw my kids struggle from loneliness. Like it was this weird

thing where I have a 7 year old son and no matter what happens,

our church seems to never have seven year olds. We've got middle

schoolers and toddlers and he's just like left alone in the

church. And I was, I was struggling with that and I was looking

at my life and I was remembering the words of Jesus about

fruitfulness. And I was just feeling like I wasn't fruitful. And

there were things I was doing to try and be fruitful. I was playing

basketball like four days a week, trying to meet all these guys,

texting people, inviting people to church. And like nothing

was working. And there were good things that God would do. God

was growing our family. In fact, I have a picture of our family.

It may be the same one I shared last year. We don't have it

updated this year. But some of you know, like, God has blessed our

family and Sandy. We've been fruitful and multiplied. We've had

two beautiful babies. Our kids are seven, three and two now. God

grew my marriage to my lovely wife Audrey. She's in the picture,

but she looks better in person too. She's right here in person if

you want to see her afterwards. Like, not that she looks

bad in the photo. I realize that could be taken that way. So

I'm putting my foot in my mouth. So it happens when I go a

little off script. But I was struggling with these things and

feeling like, where is the fruit and the fruit in my life that

I could see? It almost felt like I was trying to manufacture

it. The thing about manufactured fruit is it tastes really

bitter. And if you don't believe me, go eat the fake apple

on your grandma's countertop. Fake fruit's no good. I was asking

all of these questions and wrestling with them, and through

all of this, there was kind of this underlying question that was

just always out there. And it's one that I've truthfully wrestled

with for the last year. And God began to answer some of my questions

about fruitfulness. By the way, like, even though through basketball

I'd only made one friend, we'll call him Matthew. Cause I wasn't

going to. I didn't tell him I was going to share a story, but I'd

kind of built a little bit of a relationship with Matthew and done

some ministry to him. And he's in a blended family, his wife was

in the Navy. And like he would help us with our landscaping, I would

give him some advice. And God showed me that part of the fruitfulness

was in my family and I had adult siblings who were getting saved.

And then part of the fruitfulness was in receiving missions

teams and we would receive high schoolers and college students

from field of church and partner with even college students

from Resonate church. And there were all these little answers

to the fruitfulness question as I sought God and memorized John

15 and looked to him. But even in that, there was still one question

I'd never received an answer to. And it's one that I believe Jesus

has given the answer to today through this passage. And it's simply

this. I've asked this question, if Jesus. Sorry, if the

gospel is true and Jesus is awesome, then how could the Christian

life ever be miserable? If the gospel is true and Jesus is awesome,

how could the Christian life ever be miserable? Because there

were times in my walk, there were times in San Diego where I found

myself dealing with deep misery. Now, don't hear me say the

wrong thing here. I understand some of you are already thinking

of the teachings of Paul and even of Jesus and the life of Jesus,

that the Christian life can be sorrowful. It can be full of pain

and loss and deep, deep sorrow. But in all of those things,

we can experience joy in Jesus. Yet at least in my life, I

don't believe joy and misery can exist in the same heart. And

so I was asking this question, lord, why is this so hard? Why am

I so miserable? And Lord, where is the fruit? And Jesus chose

this week to at least in part answer this question from Matthew

13. And so what he has shared with me and blessed me with, I would

like now to share with you. So let's look to Matthew 13. Now, it

began as many sections of Matthew begin with Jesus beginning

to teach you. Read in Matthew 13 that the same day Jesus went out

of the house and sat beside the sea, and great crowds gathered

about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down and the whole

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

So as is the case up to this point in Scripture, often in Matthew

we're seeing that Jesus draws a crowd. We've seen him do a lot

of teachings to these crowds. We've already had the Sermon on the

Mount and these great teachings, these really plain teachings

about the kingdom. We've seen in these last few chapters him begin

to grow and scale his ministry, sending the disciples out

on missionary preaching journeys, confronting wrong teachings

and declaring the kingdom. And then we saw last week in Matthew

Matthew 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12, kind of wrapping that up, that he's reached a point

in his ministry where now there's also resistance and there's

questions being raised and there's people to whom the gospel

has been preached clearly who are rejecting it. And there's questions

even from people like John the Baptist and from his parents and

from his disciples. And so in response to these questions and in

response to the response of the people of Israel to his teachings,

Jesus is now going to shift gears and begin to teach through

these stories called parables. Now, David Platt, much smarter pastor

than I, he's got a simple definition for a parable. A parable,

according to Platt, is a practical story, often framed as

a simile. So saying like, or as that illustrates spiritual truth.

A practical story that illustrates spiritual truth. You're

gonna see throughout this chapter, Jesus is gonna share several

stories. And what you gotta understand is that for their original

audience, so the first century listener is these were very practical,

hands on, they related to things that they do every day. So

we're going to read, we just read a parable of a sower, of someone

literally planting seeds that are hopefully going to grow into

grain and grow into crops. This is like if he were to say to

you, hey, a man went out to go to Target. This was something these

people did in everyday life. They were practical. We should always

try to listen from the hearer's perspective and look for

the main idea or main ideas that and any parable that we study.

And what's interesting is that this first parable we're gonna see

about today is actually kind of a parable about parables. And

it's explain why Jesus is doing this. And so instead of rereading

that first section of the parable, now what I want to do is

jump down to verse 10 and kind of hear Jesus's explanation of why

he's going to do this. So his disciples in verse 10, they've heard

him teach in a parable, and they say, why do you speak to them

in parables. Why are you using these stories? Jesus answers to you.

To his disciples, it has been given to know the secrets of the

kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. Remember,

friends, if you're here and you follow Jesus, if you know the

secrets of the kingdom of heaven, if you've received the gospel,

you should ask that question, like, how did you get so lucky? Like

what? How do you know Jesus has given them to you? We can never

deserve to know this. The disciples didn't deserve to know

the secrets of the kingdom or to understand Jesus. Yet in his great

graciousness, he chose to open their hearts to him. He says, you

have been given to know these secrets. Verse 12. For to the one

who has more will be given, and he will have an abundance. From

the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is

kind of a microcosm or a statement of the future when it comes

to the kingdom. If you have received the kingdom, you're going

to get more of the kingdom. You're going to have the kingdom

for all of eternity with Jesus in a world made right, where everything

wrong has become untrue. But if you have not received the kingdom,

even the very words of the kingdom and the possibility of the

kingdom will be taken away from you. 13 this is why I speak

to them in parables. Because seeing they do not see and hearing

they do not hear. These people have heard Jesus clearly declare

the truth, and yet they didn't get it, nor do they understand. Indeed,

in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled. And this was

a statement in Isaiah of God's coming judgment. He said, you will

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

but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull and

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

have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with

their ears and understand with their heart and turn. And I would

heal them. Speaking to the disciples, speaking to those of us

who are in the kingdom. But blessed are your eyes for they see,

and your ears, for they hear. For truly I say to you, many prophets

and righteous people long to see what you see and do not see it,

and. And to hear what you hear and do not hear it. Friends, I know

if you're part of this church, you may love what is happening in

this church, and I do. But even in addition to that, there are

people who long to see what God is doing in churches, like Fielder

Church, who long to see the kingdom come. And people of different

cultures Gathered together at the throne, being able to worship

freely. Jesus, like people, have longed for this. And if we are

in the kingdom, we have received it. And so Jesus gives us

kind of these paradoxical answer for why he's teaching in parables

so that those who have received and who have understand

they're going to get deeper truth. So today, if you're here and

you've received Jesus, this parable should take you into a deeper

understanding of a spiritual truth. But if you have rejected him

in hearing a parable, you run the risk of ending up even further

away because you have hardened yourself to Jesus and he has no responsibility

to soften you, even though, as you're going to see, he's always

willing to. So let's get back to that parable. The parable that

Jesus taught was really simple. He said, a sower went out

to sow. So this is someone who's going to plant crops. For most

of human history, most people ate what they planted. So the audience

listening, they know what it is to plant grain. In fact, in all

of human history, civilization kind of started when people began

planting crops. And it's only very recently that most of us have

eaten crops that others have planted. So a sower, a planter, went

out to plant grain, verse 4. And as he sowed, some seeds fell

along the path. Now this path, in their terms, they really had two

kinds of roads, hard packed dirt and Roman roads. They're probably

picturing his current audience, a hard packed dirt road.

You can imagine dirt that has been walked over for hundreds or

even thousands of years by generations of people to where that

dirt is packed as hard as concrete. This is like he's saying,

hey, some of these seeds fell in the middle of i20. And so they

didn't get into the ground. In fact, the birds came and devoured

them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where there wasn't much

soil, there's no depth. So immediately they sprang up. Since

they had no depth of soil, but the sun rose and they were scorched.

And since they had no root, they withered away. So whatever plant

grew from that seed, it is now dead. Now, other seeds fell among

thorns and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell

on good soil and produce grain, some a hundredfold, some 60,

some 30. He who has ears, let him hear. Now what follows, that

is the explanation we just read of why Jesus is teaching in

parables. And so in case it's not clear to you in a moment, when

Jesus explains this parable, it's going to Be very obvious that

Jesus in this story, he is the sower. He is the one planting the

truth. He is the one sharing the good news of his kingdom, declaring

it far and wide, casting seed, in fact, in a way that's kind of

illogical. I like, why would you waste valuable grain on a path

where it's not gonna grow? Jesus is casting his gospel far and

wide, but the problem is not everyone's heart is ready to receive

it and be fruitful. Look down at verse 18. When Jesus explains

it. He says, hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone

hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil

one comes and snatches away what has been sown. And this is what

was sown along the path. Now, maybe you've had friends, or maybe

this is you. Maybe you've known someone who, when they receive

words of the kingdom, it's like you're speaking to a brick wall.

They might have struggles in their life. If you believe in Jesus,

you can believe they have a need for his gospel, but no matter

how much you share it, it's like you're speaking to a wall or

literally speaking to a road, and it's not responding at all. And

the gospel literally bounces off and they just forget about it.

And it's amazing. And I've seen God soften these people. And

what's amazing is even after they're softened years later and

they receive Christ, they still don't remember about all the

things they learned about Christ before because it just bounced

off. Because in their hardened state, their heart wasn't ready to

receive the seed of the gospel. And so they go on living

their hardened life, headed towards destruction. Read in verse

20 that as for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one

who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.

So they receive the gospel, they're excited. They're all in for

Jesus. They're fired up. Maybe they're volunteering everywhere.

Yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. And

when the tribulation or persecution. Remember he told in

the story that the sun came up and burned away the plant. When tribulation

or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately

he falls away. The gospel hadn't taken root, hadn't really

changed their heart. And so when the sun came up and when it

became difficult to follow Jesus, when following Jesus wasn't

just something exciting that happened at a camp or happened on

a Sunday morning or something, they wanted to be like because they

loved the community and they loved the teaching when it actually

began to cost them something, they didn't have the roots to pay

that price. And so the seed of the gospel withered in their life,

and they went back to their way of life before Jesus had ever

sown his truth. And then there's the third soil. This is an

interesting one. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the

one who hears the word. But the cares of the world and the deceitfulness

of riches choke the word and it proves unfruitful. So in this

story, and people always ask, I was talking with Jason about this

this morning, people always ask, like in this part of the story,

for this soil, the thorny soil, like, are these people Christians?

Because it doesn't seem super clear, like, they've received the

gospel. And apparently whatever. Whatever plant of the gospel

is growing in the soul of their heart, it has enough roots

that. That it exists, but it's being choked and being suffocated,

and there's. There's cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches,

literally, like, like idols and love for money and love for other

things that are choking out the work of the gospel. So, so however

much of the gospel is there, it is not multiplying. And you can

find yourself, as I was wondering, Jesus, where is the fruit?

And then we have the fourth soil, what everyone hopefully understands

the soil of our heart, what we desire to be. Jesus says, as for

what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word

and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields in one case

a hundredfold, in another, 60 and another 30. Reading through the

New Testament all the time, Jesus talks about fruit is part of

the reason I had kind of this, this personal crisis last year was

asking all these questions, because when you read through the

New Testament, it becomes clear, like, Jesus actually, he really

says, if you abide in him, that if. If the gospel has found

root in your heart, like you are going to bear fruit. And with

fruit comes joy, and with fruit comes this, this, this prosperity

and multiplying in the kingdom, not prosperity, by earthly

terms of prosperity and eternity and seeing the gospel move.

And so I'm left with this question, Jesus, if all of this is

true and the Gospel is true, and you're good and you're awesome,

then why do I often feel miserable and fruitless? And in answer

to that question, this week, Jesus brought me to verse 22 into

the account of what it's like when the seed of the kingdom finds

roots and grows in a heart that is full of thorns. See, I think

when we ask the question, how could we be miserable while pursuing

Jesus? How could we be miserable while going to church?

How could we ever have received the gospel yet still be

miserable? The answer, it's not Jesus. The answer is that there

are other things in our heart that are competing with and fighting

with and choking the root of the gospel. And we're caught in misery

in between. Elsewhere in Matthew, Jesus, talking about this,

said, no man can serve two masters, for you will hate one and

love the other. That you can't serve both God and money. You'll

be devoted to one and love the other. And the problem for us, and

the problem for me all too often is that we've got a love hate

relationship with our thorns. And there are things in our heart

where our heart loves Jesus, yet our actions say we love our thorns.

And then we might hate the thorns in our life and hate the things

that are choking out the gospel, yet our actions say we actually

hate Jesus and his kingdom because we're pursuing all sorts

of things that choke out the very real work that Jesus wants to

do in our heart. In fact, check this out. This word for choke.

When Jesus says that the soil with thorns, that the thorns are

choking out the seed of the gospel, it's the same Greek word

that's used elsewhere for things like suffocate. In fact, there's

a story in scripture where Jesus is so surrounded by a crowd,

it's like a crowd crush. And he's so surrounded by people that

he can't even breathe. He's beginning to get suffocated. Thorns

choke out the gospel, where we can spend our life, our life as a

suffocated Christian, wondering how we could know Jesus

and still be miserable. Like, when's the last time you experienced

choking or suffocation? Like, you really understood that? I was

thinking about it this week. So I do CrossFit. I'm not gonna talk

much about that, which I know breaks the rules of CrossFit, but

I do CrossFit. And part of working out in CrossFit gyms is that

it is inherently competitive. In fact, every week there's a leaderboard,

and you can see every day, leaderboard, you can see how you

performed in relation to the other hundreds of people that go

to your gym. And I know what you're thinking, that's dangerous

for my pride. I'll tell you two things. Number one, I very rarely

enter the top of that leaderboard. And number two, Jesus

has not yet convicted me about that area. Of pride. So back off

and let Jesus handle it. But I've got this little brother, and

he goes to cross it with me, and I say, little brother, actually,

you talk about pride. When we started CrossFit, he was 50 pounds

heavier than me. Now he's 50 pounds lighter than me. So that's

done wonders for my pride. But he's a similar height to me, and

so there's certain workouts that he'll see, and he'll say, man,

this is made for us. So he texts me a couple weeks ago. He's

like, hey, I know we don't usually go to class together, but

today I want to go do this partner workout with you because

I think you and I can win. Like, we can beat the entire gym.

So I show up with him, and the workout seemed really simple. But

put simply, we basically had to take turns rowing on a rower for,

like, 20 minutes. And every so often, we have to go outside and

walk 50 meters each. And so I'm looking at this workout, okay,

we're going to kill ourselves on the rower, and then we get a nice

outside walk to catch our breath. But there's one catch. While

we were walking outside, we had to carry a sandbag. And turns

out that sandbag, for our age and for our gender, was 150 pounds.

So I did the first section of this workout. Several minutes go

by. I get outside, I go and I go to pick up this sandbag, and I

had to hold it this way. Someone asked me that in the first

service. They said, hey, why didn't you hold it in an easier way?

I said, no, they made us hold it this way. They wanted us to suffer.

And so I pick up the sandbag, and I'm starting to walk. And I kid

you not, the first few feet that I walk, I started to see stars,

and I started to, like, get dizzy and lose my balance. And it

became a struggle just to walk 50 meters carrying the sandbag. And

then with every round, it got more and more difficult until finally

the last round, we're finishing the workout. My younger

brother's been carrying me through this thing. I'm, like, about

to black out, and I get halfway through, and I literally

could not walk 50 meters. I had to drop the sandbag and just

sit there and catch my breath. I have never been so close to losing

my lunch in the gym. And what's so amazing, as I looked at

this workout and I thought, man, the rowings, the hard part.

The walking's the easy part. And yet, when I was suffocating with

that weight on my chest. The walking became the hard part. See,

I think for so many of us, we might have met Jesus. The gospel

might have some root in our heart, but we've got these thorns,

and they're choking out the kingdom in our heart and in our life.

And because of these thorns and the suffocation, the very basics

of the Christian walk becomes the hard part. Because Jesus has

a competitor in our soul, in our spirit, and in our heart. And

we find ourselves miserable and suffering and choking our way

through the Christian life, wondering, Jesus, why can I not be

more fruitful? How could my heart become good soil? You know,

I'm a really logical guy. I like to give checklists. I give my

church way too many checklists. It's like a Pharisee,

right? So I was thinking about this, getting ready to teach today,

and I was struggling with how to teach this. Jason knows this.

Like, I've struggled with even how to deliver this message today.

Because when I present a problem and I present, like, what

it is to be a miserable Christian, I just want to give an

answer to that. Like, hey, do these five things and you can be

happy. Like, 10 steps to never experience misery again. That's a

great sermon. And maybe this one's not as good as that, right?

But, like, I couldn't come up with a checklist. And I'm wrestling,

like, Jesus, okay? I see this truth. I see that we got all these

thorns in our soil, but what do we do about it? And what he's

revealed to me is that, you know what I try to do about it? I

try to pull the thorns out myself. Like, I look at my life and

I see these cares of the world. I see my pride. Like, guys,

I can be up here on stage and exhibit cares of the world because

I care more about how I look on camera or I care more about how

my clip sounds on Facebook and XA than I do when I rightly dividing

the word of God or the deceitfulness of riches. For me,

that I could care more about my family's financial future. The

fact that we don't own a home, the fact that I wonder, like, how

are we gonna afford to raise all these kids in a place like San

Diego? Like, I can be so caught up in these thorns, and I

look at them and I see and I say, okay, I gotta get rid of this.

I gotta deal with this. I gotta get some roundup and get some.

Some clippers and, like, get the thorns out of my heart so that

I could do something for the kingdom. And this is how I approached

my Christian walk. For years I was convinced, like, if I could just

figure out the right habits to clean up my life, that meant then

I could do something for God. Like maybe then I could be a pastor

like Jason, right? And last year, as I'm asking these questions,

Jesus brought me to John 15. And I spent six months with a guy

that I disciple, memorizing John 15 and sitting in that passion.

If you don't know that passage, that's the passage where

Jesus says he is the vine and his father is the vine dresser, that

we just have to abide in him, that whoever abides in me and I in

him, it is he who bears much fruit. For apart from me, therefore

you can do nothing. And I just began doing little things to try

to abide in Jesus, like memorizing John 15, like writing

out scriptures already memorized, like literally just sitting

with Jesus and a cup of coffee saying, jesus, I don't know how to

be fruitful, but would you do something? Would you show me something?

And gradually, little by little over the year, he began to

show fruit in my life. He began to show me the fruit in the

life of my kids. I got the baptized my 7 year old son 2 months

ago. He showed me fruit in my extended family. I have a lot of

adult siblings. Multiple of my siblings now follow Jesus in a way

they did not before my family came to our church in San Diego a

couple of years ago. He showed me fruit and these missions teams

that we host from places like Fielder, and that by investing to

send and high schoolers and college students and young adults,

that he was using that investment to bear fruit in his kingdom

in Texas and around the world. So he's showing me these trickles

of fruit, but I'm still like, okay, God, that's great. But I see

this like 30, 60, 100, like, isn't there more like, how do I let

go of these thorns? In fact, I'll catch myself remembering that

day I carried that sandbag. And maybe this is like you, maybe

you're suffocating today because of thorns that are choking

up your heart. I found myself saying, like, I wish it was as easy

to drop the thorns in my heart as it was to drop that sandbag. And

then I hear Jesus, still small voice, saying, maybe it is the same

God who spoke, same God that spoke through Jesus. Like, Jesus

is God and God the Father spoke through the prophets. And in

Ezekiel, we read this incredible prophecy spoken to his

people at a time when his people are far from Him. When God's

people had hard in their heart, when the people of Israel

had thorny hearts and the truth of the kingdom was nowhere

to be found. We read this in Ezekiel, chapter 36. God speaks to

Ezekiel 36 · chapter mention

his people and says, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit

I will put within you and I will remove your heart of stone from

your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. See, I began to dwell

on verses like this. I didn't really change how I went about being

a pastor, but I just said God, like Jesus, I just want to experience

your fruit. And the older I get, the more I realize it's not

about me. I'm not a very impressive pastor. I'm not a very

impressive speaker. I don't actually dress as cool as I think

I dress. I'm not as good, like, I'm not good at anything as

I think I am. But Jesus is great. I said, jesus, would you move?

And little by little, he started to move. I told you, I spent

three years playing basketball. Just like I say, I had

an outreach, like I was meeting people. Nothing came of it.

And then last year, I had made one friend in three years and he

was like, vaguely, he's one of these guys. Like, vaguely, he liked

the idea of God. And he was married to a Navy nurse. And they

had a blended family. Six kids, two teenage sons that were

hers and not his, who he had a lot of difficulty with, and then

four little kids. And gradually over the year, my family

became friends with his family and my kids became friends with his

kids to the point that, like, whenever he would show up to a church

event, which wasn't much, his kids would ask, hey, are we coming

over to your house? And it became this sweet little relationship.

And it became more than that when a couple of months ago, Field

of Church sent a high school team to do a soccer clinic. And so

part of that fruitfulness and these high schools are ministering

to kids in our community. And that week my son had gotten baptized.

And the seven year old daughter of my buddy Matthew comes

and says she wants to get baptized and she wants to follow

Jesus. And so he tries to get her baptized that day. And I say,

hey man, that's awesome. Like, we have a class for this. We want

to talk with you about what it means and how you can be baptized.

And then he comes back a couple weeks later. He's like, yeah,

I don't want her baptized because I've never been. I don't

know about this. Like, should my whole family do it? Or not. Like,

how do we do this? And then we find out this family, this beautiful,

like, sweet military family, is getting unlawfully evicted. And

it just happened that the day they were being unlawfully evicted

or the day they had to move was the same day that Resonate Church

from the Pacific Northwest had asked me if they could serve our

church. And so we got to show up with, like, 30 college students

and move this family across town and their two teenage sons.

My buddy's two teenage stepsons were so impressed with this

and by these college students that they showed up to our youth

group that Friday night. And that Friday night, they got saved.

And then when they asked to get baptized, my buddy Matthew came

to me about baptism, and he got saved. And last Sunday, I got

to see my son's new friends that we prayed for, celebrating death

to life in their family as I baptized the father and both of his

stepsons at the beach with, like, 50 college students from Resonate

and Mesa Church. And. And we're just selling. And I'm seeing,

like, all these different areas where I was trying to manufacture

fruit, and Jesus and his goodness wove it all together and

crafted a story that I could never invent so that someday in my

life, I could see the fruit of the Kingdom go forward 30 fold or

60 fold or a hundredfold. And it wasn't anything that I did. It

was simply abiding in Jesus and allowing him to be the gardener.

See, in so many ways, the parable of the sower is just a parable

of the gospel. Like, we are stuck in our sins. We're stuck in

our hardened soil and our rocks and our thorns, and there's

nothing that can save us. And we don't even have agency. Like,

we cannot become a plant when we're dirt. That's not power that

we have. And yet Jesus does not stay away from us. He draws dirt

near to us, and he comes close to us, and he shares the truth with

us. And he makes good on that truth at the end of Matthew when

he goes to the cross to pay the price for all those sins that

got us so messed up in the first place. Like the sins, both

your sins and others that led you to being hardened. The sins,

both sins you've committed and sins committed against you that led

to you having some rocks in your soil, the sins of your heart

and the sins of others that led to you having these thorns in

your soil suffocating you. And Jesus goes and pays the price for

all of it. And then he comes back and he says, I'm not done because

I've got others I want to share this truth with. I was thinking

of Peter this week. I relate so much to Peter. Issues of pride.

One moment he's swinging a sword, cutting off someone's ear

for Jesus. The next moment, he's denying Jesus three times. Do

you know how Peter came back to Jesus and how his soul became

fruitful? It wasn't anything he did. Jesus drew near to him and

restored him that through his tears, Peter could be made fruitful

friends. I want that for you this morning. I want that for you.

You know, I haven't done much planting in my life. I'm not much

of a gardener. This story is a little foreign for me, but I got

to do just a little bit of it. A couple years ago, we got to put

in this beautiful soccer field at our church. And some of you were

part of that. Some folks from Mesa helped to pay for it. We had

a volunteer team build in. Part of putting in a soccer field

for our community to do, to enjoy was building a retaining wall.

And on top of the retaining wall, there was this little flower

bed. And I had a buddy who's a church planter but used to be a landscaper,

and he helped me plan out this flower bed. He had all these beautiful

plants that smelled nice and looked great and would survive in

the desert in California. But we made one really big mistake. See,

as we got close to finishing the retaining wall, we ran out of

soil. And so we had to reuse the topsoil we had removed from the

grass when we first started constructing the soccer field in

order to finish off this retaining wall. And we planted all

these beautiful lamps. My friend told me. He said, charlie,

I gotta tell you, I saw that soil before it was removed, and it's

full of weeds and it's full of crabgrass. So you can plant whatever

you want on top of this retaining wall. What you're actually

gonna get is weeds and crabgrass. I said, okay, well, can

we change? Like, is there anything we could plant that would

be stronger than the weeds and stronger than the crabgrass? And

he laughed at me, and he said, brother, nothing is stronger than

crabgrass. That's what you're gonna get. And you know what? He

was right. And six months later, all those beautiful plants

were overgrown with crabgrass. We literally had to rip it all out

and take out all the dirt and. And put down new soil and landscaping

paper just to get the garden the way we wanted it to look. And

look, here's why I share that with you. I don't know the state

of your heart this morning. I don't know if you're in here and

you identify with the hardened soil and you're realizing, hey, I've

heard Jesus over and over and over again, but it's never taken

root. Like, is it hopeless for me? Friends, I got to tell you, if

you're asking that question, the answer is no. Because if you're

asking that question, Jesus is speaking to you and drawing you to

something this morning. Drawing you to a decision to allow

him to soften the soil of your heart, that your eternity could be

changed. Maybe you've got rocky soil. Maybe you've been in

and out of church, you've been excited for Jesus, you've been baptized

in the past, and it didn't go the way you wanted it. You fell away.

And you're like, was it ever real? Like, where am I at? Can I

really? Like, I'm embarrassed to come back. And Jesus is saying,

no, I love you so much that I'm gonna come sow that seed of the

gospel again, and I'll come take the rocks out of your heart

so that the roots of my gospel can go deep into you and change you

and give you a purpose in the kingdom. Or maybe you're like I so

often am, and you find yourself even questioning if you

follow Jesus. Cause your heart is so thorny and you find yourself

suffocating and struggling. And just the walking is the hard

part. Because there's so many competing things in your heart. And

you're saying, what do I even do about this? And I'm even afraid.

I'm embarrassed to come forward because I don't want to admit

this because I lead a small group or I preach sermons, I do whatever.

And I just want to tell you, like, Jesus wants you to come lay

it down today. When I asked Jesus why can't letting go of these

thorns be as easy as dropping the sandbag? He gave me an image

that today there would be those in this room that could drop

their thorns at this altar, that could meet with someone to pray

that Jesus would give them a fresh heart, would pull the thorns

out, that they could bear fruit. Friends, I don't know what

your heart is full of when it comes to the seeds in your heart.

Let me tell you, nothing can out compete Jesus. In a moment, I'm

gonna pray. Music's gonna begin. There's gonna be pastors down

front. I wanna encourage you to respond in this moment. If you're

here and you've never before responded to the gospel you've never

received, the kingdom you've rejected. This is a moment you could

choose to lay down your arms and repent and. And receive the kingdom

and have your heart softened and your eternity changed. If you're

one of those who's had a. Had a heart that's rocky or thorny, there's

been cares and concerns of the world that have distracted you from

Jesus. You can come and drop those cares and concerns right here

at the altar. If there's sin in your heart and desire for riches

that you know you're holding onto and you've tried to fix it,

no matter how hard you try, it never goes away. You could let go

of it today. Like, what would it look like if everyone in this

room bore fruit 30, 60, 100 times? It would look like the world

changing. Like I told you, I have nothing more to offer you than

the message of Jesus. But the message is this, that Jesus is enough

and Jesus is greater than whatever is holding your heart captive.

Let's pray and then respond. King Jesus, I thank you for the chance

to share your word. We thank you for the truth of your gospel.

We thank you that you are enough. For those hearts you've softened.

For those of us that you've given us a heart of flesh and taken

away our heart of stone, we thank you, Lord. We rejoice it has

been given to us to know the kingdom. And our earnest desire and

plea is that it will be given to others. That for those in this

room, for those watching online, that for anyone who has not

received your kingdom, that this could be the moment they could

respond in obedience. They could repent of their sins and be

baptized this very day. That their heart could be changed, that

we could see them bear fruit far beyond anything we've seen in

our day and in our life and in our nation and in our churches. So,

Holy Spirit, you have the room. This is your space. Would you

do your kingdom work? Sow your seed, soften our hearts and grow

your kingdom. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. I'll

be down front. I invite you to respond as the Holy Spirit leads.