The Secret to Exponential Increase in Your Life Part 2: Matthew 13:1-23 - Matthew: Kingdom of God Revolution

You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

How many of you would like to see an exponential increase of joy in your life?

How many would like to see an exponential increase of forgiveness in your life?

How many would like to see an exponential increase of your abilities and talents in your life?

Well, it's possible.

It's the secret that most believers miss.

At The Road, our mission is to empower people to change the world.

For more information on The Road, visit theRode.org.

We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

We've been going through the book of Matthew.

These are guests with us today.

We go chapter by chapter, verse by verse, and we're on a theme that we've been on now for six months, on the a kingdom of God revolution.

And it's our conviction here at the road that God desires to bring a kingdom of God revolution in this city, in this county, in this state, and in this nation.

We believe that's why Jesus came.

And when Jesus came, he began to model to us what a kingdom of God revolution looks like.

And he was opposed.

There was tremendous opposition against Jesus.

And if you're if you're watching The Chosen, that series that just came out by Hunter Jenkins, would encourage you to watch it online or Netflix or wherever you can find it.

Awesome depiction of Jesus.

And what you see is that Jesus, as he begins to gradually come out into the public more, there is going to be more and more public opposition to him.

You guys get that?

That when you stand for righteousness, you need to always expect there to be opposition.

There just always is.

So if you decide to do the right thing in your company, if you decide to do the right thing in your school, if you decide to do the right thing in your family, it's not gonna be, oh, I'm so glad you're such a righteous person.

I've been running all over the nation looking for righteous people that I can become friends with.

Never works that way.

The enemy's always working, and even with Jesus, this opposition is growing.

So by Matthew 13, what's happening is Jesus changes his strategy.

How many of you know in your life you should probably change strategies every once in a while?

I mean, really, if it's not going well for you, change strategies.

You can always change.

It's called growth.

Growth.

We grow.

The problem in many of our marriages, the problem in many of our lives is we don't want to grow anymore.

We're just kind of, well, that's the way I am.

And so everybody knows that's the way I am.

And that's why you don't have any friends, you know, because that's the way you are.

And so God wants to change us.

And so Jesus comes, and here's what he does.

Here's what he does.

Really interesting.

In John 9, as well as in Matthew 13 and in Mark 4, Jesus starts speaking in parables.

He's not done that before.

He's been very obvious before, but now he becomes parabolic.

He starts telling parables.

And here's what a parable, para, para means alongside.

You've heard of paramilitary, alongside, balic, bala, means to throw, to throw alongside.

And what he's doing is this is an agrarian culture, and he's gonna take an agrarian illustration and he's gonna throw it beside a spiritual truth.

So listen to what I'm saying.

Jesus takes a natural truth and a spiritual truth and he puts them together in the greatest parable in the Bible.

Don't miss this.

If you can't understand what we're about to read, Jesus says in Mark, you will not understand all the other parables.

There's 40 other parables.

And he's saying, if you get this parable, you'll get all the other parables.

If you don't get this parable, you won't understand any of the other parables.

So we started last week, and I'm calling this the secret to exponential increase.

How many of you would like to see an exponential increase of joy in your life?

How many would like to see an exponential increase of forgiveness in your life?

How many would like to see an exponential increase of your abilities and talents in your life?

Well, it's possible.

It's the secret that most believers miss.

So look at Matthew 13, and it's the parable of the seed and the sower, the most famous of all the parables.

And probably the meaning is missed most of the time.

Look at verse 3.

Behold, a sower went out to sow.

And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured them.

Some fell on stony places where they did not have much earth.

And they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.

But when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away.

And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.

But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

So Jesus is assuming, as he tells the story, some people are not gonna have ears to hear.

They're not gonna understand, especially the religious folks, the scribes and the Pharisees, they're not gonna get it.

That's why he's doing it.

Listen, listen.

Parables either reveal truth or conceal truth.

Don't miss that.

Parables either reveal truth or conceal truth.

For those that have ears to hear, reveals truth.

You're like, whoa, that's another way to look at it.

I get that.

For those who don't have ears to hear, they have a hardened heart, it actually conceals truth.

They actually become more confused by what they hear.

So now Jesus goes and takes everything a step.

Just think of him, just think of him right there, and he's directing this toward the Pharisees.

And the disciples came and said to him, Why do you speak to them in parables?

And he answered, he said to them, Because, and I can see him raising his voice, so they're all around him, there's still a crowd out there, but he raises his voice so everybody can hear, because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

But to them it has not been given.

For whoever has, to him more will be given.

And he will have an abundance, circle abundance in your Bible.

If you've got a pen there, circle abundance, but whoever does not have even what he has will be taken away from him.

Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.

And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, Hearing you will hear.

They hear, but they shall not understand.

Really important.

You can hear something and not understand it.

And seeing, they see, but they can't perceive what's in front of them.

For their hearts, this is the issue here, gang, this is the issue today.

Their hearts of this people have grown dull.

Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts, and turn so that I should heal them.

But blessed are your eyes, for they see.

Now he's talking to his disciples again, and your ears, because you can hear.

For assured I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear.

Here's what he's saying.

Jot this down the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Always true in the kingdom of heaven.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

If you are a rich man, meaning that you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you're just gonna get richer and richer and richer as you go through life.

You're gonna see exponential increase.

But if you have a dull heart, if you have eyes that cannot see, ears that cannot hear, you're just gonna go through life getting poorer and poorer and poorer.

And it's really sad.

We see it all the time.

So now he goes, he says, here's the four kinds of hearts.

Here's the four kinds of hearts.

Verse 18.

Therefore, hear the parable of the sower.

So now he goes back to what he said.

He's gonna give an explanation of what he said earlier.

When anyone hears the word, circle the word, underline the word, highlight the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.

So the devil's always involved, gang.

These are Jesus' words.

The devil's always right there, ready to snatch truth from your heart.

This is he who receives seed by the wayside.

But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.

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

For when tribulation and persecution arises because of the word, immediately stumbles.

Verse 22.

Now he who receives seed among the thorns is he who hears the word and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word out, and he becomes unfruitful.

This is the key verse here.

But he who received seed on the good ground.

That's a good heart.

That good there, I'm gonna come back to this, means beautiful.

It's a beautiful heart, is he who hears the word, understands it, and then indeed bears fruit, producing a hundredfold, some 60, and some 30.

Exponential increase.

Exponential increase.

Let me give you a definition of exponential increase.

Exponential growth is growth whose rate becomes ever more rapid in proportion to the growing total number of size.

So another way to say it is explosion.

It's an explosion of growth, you guys.

This is amazing.

This is amazing.

So one of the best examples I know is the miracle, what we call the miracle of compounding interest.

This idea that as you start putting money into an account, say in stocks or bonds or something like that, you not only gain interest from your principal, right?

You start getting interest on the principal, on the interest of the principal.

So you start getting interest on the interest, and it starts to just explode out.

And so this exponential increase is happening in our lives.

Listen, every time we open the word of the kingdom, we open God's word, we begin to read it.

The seed, men and women, is the word.

The word is the seed.

Don't miss this.

Because American Christianity has a view of the word as being, yeah, it's kind of important.

And now almost everybody in America has got a Bible somewhere gathering dust in their house.

Okay?

But it's not essential.

Oh, it's kind of important, okay.

That's a cool book, and yeah, we read it maybe at Thanksgiving.

But you will not see exponential increase if the seed, listen, isn't regularly landing in the good soul of your heart, full of faith.

And if it does, though, it has a potential.

Listen, you don't have any potential.

You guys out there have no potential.

God's seed has potential.

You hear what I'm saying?

So you say, well, I don't have any potential.

You're right, okay.

I mean, you got you got natural potential.

Some of you are smarter than others.

Life's not fair.

Life's not fair.

This church has an inordinate number of geeks.

And they're always coming up to me and telling me some new revelation that they have about something that's really geeky.

And I'm like amazed that they're they geek out on that stuff.

I like to geek out on this, okay?

And this is where the increase lies because the put listen, the potential is not in us, it's in him.

And when we begin to read God's word, the word of the kingdom, that potential becomes our potential.

Isn't that cool?

Isn't that exciting?

So every time you start getting mad at yourself and upset at yourself and all the mistakes that you've made, just realize you're dead.

You are dead.

You have died to yourself and you're alive to him.

Isn't that exciting?

So don't worry about you.

Give it all to him.

Start trusting him and watch the potential of the kingdom that he placed in you that's been laying there latent for all these years that he wants to explode out in your intelligence and in your heart and in your mind and in your fortitude and in your ability to persevere under trial.

You were a quitter before.

You were a quitter before.

You gave up all the time before, right?

We did.

We now have a new heart and we have a new spirit when we were born again.

When we brought Jesus into our life by inviting him in, and when he came in, he gave you a new spirit.

That's what Jeremiah says.

He gave you a new spirit, new heart.

You've got a new heart, and that heart is pumping with the adrenaline of God.

But as we spend time in his word, that's the only way the increase comes.

It's like the miracle of compounding interest.

Every time you spend time in God's word, every time you worship him, you spend you're depositing, you're making deposits into the good soil of your heart, it's going to bring an increase.

It's going to bring an increase in your life.

So I want you to do something with me.

Turn to Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Keep your finger in Matthew 13, but look at Genesis chapter 1.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

And just real quick, look at verse 11.

Genesis 1, 11.

Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb, the yielding seed, the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind.

Underline that.

According to its kind.

Okay, verse 12.

And the earth brought forth grass, the herb, that yields seed according to its kind.

And the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind.

If I plant a tomato seed in the garden, I'm not going to get cucumbers.

I'm going to get tomatoes.

So it's always according to its kind.

So, church, look at me.

What kind of seeds are you planting?

If you're planting despair and unforgiveness and a mean spirit, it's going to multiply.

You're going to have a hundredfold, thirty-fold, sixty-fold multiplication of that kind of seed because the seed is always according to its kind.

But if we are experiencing the kingdom in our hearts, and then we're expressing the seeds of the kingdom to those around us, it's going to have an exponential impact.

And you'll be, you'll be a kingdom person, which is what?

It's righteousness, peace, and joy.

That's what the church should be.

I believe that there'd be more excitement about the opening of churches across the country if we were more like the kingdom.

Right?

I mean, we need churches that have righteousness, peace, and joy.

That's the fruit of the kingdom.

That's what Romans says.

And so if we start becoming more and more a people of righteousness, peace, and joy, people will be clamoring for it.

I want righteousness, peace, and joy in my life.

So how do we get that?

Well, there's four kinds of hearts.

So Jesus now explains this idea of these four soils or these four types of heart.

I want you to look at verse 19.

So let's look quickly at these.

The first one is verse 19.

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.

And this is he who received the seed by the, you ought to circle underline, wayside.

This is the wayside seed.

I call this the hardened heart.

How many of you like to go hiking?

Anyone going hiking today?

Awesome.

Okay.

When you get on a trail and you're walking on a trail, it's a trail where everything gets hardened because of all the feet that have been on it, right?

And with my granddad in his ranch in South Carolina, he'd have his fields of corn and stuff that he did out there, and he always had somewhere in the middle, kind of a place for a trail.

That's the wayside of a field that he would walk, and then he would go grab that corn, pull off a stalk, and then he would check it just to see where everything's at.

That's the wayside.

The hardened heart is you following the world.

It's following the path of the world.

It's the trodden path of the world.

You know, there's two menus.

There's two menus.

There's a kingdom menu and there's a world's menu.

And this person is reading from the world's menu.

They're following the values of the world, the music of the world.

They can tell you more about every sports figure right now, but they couldn't tell you one Bible verse.

They don't know that.

I mean, that this is the ways of the world.

They live in the world, they love the values of this world.

And it says here, Jesus is saying, look, if you if you follow the wayside, if you're gonna walk out the ways of the world, Satan's gonna snatch that seed away.

He's gonna snatch it away.

He will, men and women.

Guess what?

We've all done it.

We've all been there.

We've all walked on the wayside.

That's where we all started.

I was on the wayside at the University of Georgia that freshman year.

I was on the wayside.

We were there, you know.

That's the ways of the world, the cares of this world, reading off the menu of this world, watching the programs of this world, reading the books of this world.

And Satan's right there.

He's not irrelevant in what Jesus is saying here.

He comes and he snatches away the word.

How many of you remember, if you're born again, if you know Christ as your Lord and Savior, how many of you would say the day before you gave your heart to Christ, this would be like one of the most boring books ever.

Raise your hand.

I know.

It was true for me.

I had one from confirmation, I had one from baptism.

I had a stack of Bibles that I got as a Lutheran, that I got at each one of the little ceremonies that I went through, but they didn't mean anything to me.

But the next day, after giving my heart to Christ, man, I couldn't wait to get into God's word.

I had a hunger for it because the Spirit of God was now within me.

Jesus continues.

But he received the seed on stony places, underlying stony places.

This is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.

Yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while, for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

So the first is a hardened heart.

This is a stony heart.

So this is where you go to our whole heart advance, you men.

You've been to our whole heart advance, and you're fired up, and they come back from the whole heart advance, and they're so excited, and everybody's pumped up about being at the whole heart advance, and then we never see them again.

Or they go to a women's retreat at Glen Erie or something really exciting and everything, and then we never see them again.

Or they go to the youth retreat and they're all pumped up and fired up, and we see them for two weeks and then we never see them again.

Because normal.

I mean, that's what happens on a stony heart.

Here's what the stones are.

You know what the stones are?

The stones are those things in our life that we really don't want to give up.

And we don't want anybody to know about them either.

So a stone are those things that are holding you back, but you don't want to give them up.

It might be porn, it might be jealousy, it might be envy, it might be anger.

Now, hear what I'm saying?

When Jesus comes to a heart, he didn't clean it all up at once.

So everybody here's got a stone or two.

But some of you got some pretty big boulders, right?

And you're not gonna grow.

Until you deal with it.

And one of the things that's so important in our lives is to deal with shame.

We all struggle with shame.

Most of you in this room know my story of shame.

And instead of running from it, I faced it.

Instead of running from it, I started to deal with it.

I faced it.

And I said, Yeah, I'm this.

I'm arrogant.

I'm prideful.

Got these errors in my life I need to work on.

And man, when I did that, it just kind of blew everything up, blew up in the devil's face.

He didn't have any hooks on me anymore.

Because I said, Hey, you know, you're kind of arrogant.

I am.

I'm very arrogant.

Well, what do you do with somebody like that?

If they're admitting it and then they're handing it to God.

So I want to challenge you.

If you've got some rocks in your life, and you all do, give them to God.

So, Lord, I want the roots, I want the roots of the word to get down deep.

I don't want just a 30-fold increase.

I don't want just a 60-fold, I want a hundredfold.

I want everything that you have for me.

Turn to someone near you and say, I want everything God has for me.

Say it.

I want everything God has for me.

Say it again.

So get those stones, church, out of your life.

You know why that's hard?

You know why it's hard?

You like your stones.

You got a pet rock.

You got a little pet rock, you're carrying your little pet rock, and you're petting it.

You just love your little rock, your little rock of unforgiveness towards your parents.

That little rock about that husband you had, he treated you bad, and that husband and that wife that treated you bad.

I'm sorry.

Take that rock and throw it in the lake.

Start throwing it in the lake.

And guess what?

It'll resurrect.

It'll come to the top and it'll start swimming towards you.

That'll be a swimming rock.

Get away from me.

And it'll jump right back in your lap.

Well, pick it up again and throw it.

And if you're having trouble throwing it, get some blood-stained allies.

Get some men and women next to you and help.

They'll help you throw it.

Because you got friends who believe in you, and I believe in you.

This church believes in you.

You don't have to have a stony heart.

It's over.

Stony heart, done, finished.

Hundredfold.

Hundredfold.

Hundredfold.

Exponential increase.

Hundredfold.

We're not a 30-fold increase, church.

We're hundredfold.

Verse 22.

Now he who receives seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, so they're hearing it, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, comma, look what it says, and he becomes unfruitful.

Now, men and women, when I read that, if someone becomes unfruitful, it must mean they were fruitful, right?

They became unfruitful.

Here's what I think this is.

I think this is a fruitful Christian.

I think this is a wholehearted disciple.

They're doing well, they're following God, and then they quit spending time in God's Word, they quit coming to church, they quit praying, they quit tithing, their money becomes, they start hoarding what they have, they start not calling back people who ask how they're doing, they stop getting out of their small group, and then the crowd, and then they're like, it starts to crowd in, man.

All the cares of this world start to crowd in.

Instead of you walking in victory, you're walking as a victim.

You become the big victim.

And you start blaming this, and all I got that church, that pastor, he wears white pants.

You know.

I don't go to that church anymore because they opened early with COVID-19.

I'm not gonna go to that church anymore because the pastor's really short.

And he can't grow a mustache, except when he wears a mask.

And then he's got 18 mustaches on his face.

Weird guy.

Really weird.

Whatever.

So here's the deal, men and women.

God's called us to deal with that kind of stuff because everybody struggles there, right?

We struggle with getting crowded out by number one, cares of this world.

And here's what happens.

Here's what the cares of this world means.

This is what I think it means.

I think it means that we've set our mind most of the time on the stuff that's happening in the world.

And we're all worried about it.

We're all worried about it.

It could be the news, it could be your 401k, whatever.

And Peter said that we are seeking, we are seeking a kingdom, listen, that we cannot see.

That we have to, for those that are struggling with the cares of the world, and that's many of us here, we we do, and man, have we been through the cares of this virus for the last couple months?

Take your eyes off the virus.

Take your eyes off the news and put them on the kingdom.

Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things we're worried about will be added unto us.

Take your eyes off the earth, put your eyes up on him.

Then he says, the deceitfulness of riches.

Nothing wrong with riches.

We are the richest nation.

Every one of you in this room are the richest people in the world.

The average income in the world is$200 a year.

$200 a year.

We are so wealthy, unbelievably wealthy.

The deceitfulness of riches, not riches.

I mean, I've known so many millionaires in my life that love Jesus, they're going after the kingdom, and they're making a mighty impact because they know how to make money.

Deuteronomy says that God gives certain people the ability to make money, power to make money.

So all you ladies out there that have been just hammering your husband because he's not making enough money, blame it on God.

It's not their fault.

But God gives us the ability to make money, and I want you all in this room and myself, I want to make as much money as I can, but I'm not going to be deceived by it.

All you gotta do is look at sports figures and those big contracts they sign and all the multi-billionaires and so forth.

I mean, the divorces, the drug addiction, it's unbelievable.

It's that's the deceitfulness of riches.

Riches, listen, riches don't make you happy, but happy people are wealthy.

I'd rather have nothing and be happy and joyful with Jesus and my family than have everything and lose it all.

And so, men and women, you want to know the definition of a wealthy person?

The definition of a wealthy person is not who has the most but who needs the least.

Not who has the most, but who needs the least.

Abraham was wealthy, Daniel was wealthy, David was wealthy.

It's the deceitfulness.

You see, money is a great tool.

It's an incredible tool.

I say, get out there.

I like what John Wesley said.

John Wesley said, make as much as you can.

Give away as much as you can and live with wholehearted devotion.

That's what God wants us to do.

Lastly, and this is the most exciting one, and then I'm gonna, wow, I've really gone long.

Wow.

He receives seed on the good ground as he who hears the word, understands it, and he who indeed bears fruit and produces some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.

This is the beautiful heart.

This is the beautiful, this is the heart you want.

This is the good soil of the heart that God has.

God wants you to allow him to plant his seed in your heart.

Hebrews 4 12.

The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, able to judge the thoughts and intentions of our heart.

Now, men and women, this morning, some of you have a hardened heart.

It's time to come to Jesus.

Today, give your heart to Christ and let the seed of the kingdom of God begin to work a new work and give you a new heart and a new spirit.

So I can't change.

That's exactly right.

Actually, that's the answer.

Right at the top of your page, if you say, I can't do it, I can't change, put right next to that, that's the right answer.

You get a hundred.

Some of us have a stony heart.

And God's asking you to take that stone, and he's impressing upon your heart here this morning what that stone is, and it's time to throw it in the lake of eternity.

Some of us have a crowded heart.

We've been crowded out.

The kingdom's been crowded out by all our busyness and all the things we're worried about.

Give that to the Lord.

And then come to a good heart.

You've been listening to The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

We hope you have been blessed by today's message.

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Thanks again for tuning in today, and be sure to listen to the next edition of The Road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.