Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - The Importance of Perseverance - Luke 8:1-15

Okay, So today is a family service, and this week I read a

fun little story that as we start off into our message, I wanted to

read and share with all of you brought. I've had a lot of joy

about it, so I wanted to share it with you guys and kiddos.

Are you guys in the room solid? Heck? Yeah, Junior always here?

What's up? I love it. I have a little story for all

of you, guys. So this is for the adults, it's for the

kids. It's about two frogs. It goes like this. Yes, I

love How quiet it? God, you guys are ready. You guys are

listening. Okay, two frogs fell into a can of cream, Or so

I've heard it told. The sides of the can were shiny and steep,

the cream was deep and cold. Oh what's the use croakes? Number one

tis fate, no helps around, Goodbye my friend, goodbye sad world.

And weeping still, he drowned, But number two of sterner stuff dog paddled

in surprise the while he wiped his creamy face and dried his creamy eyes.

I'll swim a while, at least, he said, or so I've heard

he said. It really wouldn't help the world if one more frog were dead

an hour or two, he kicked and swam, not once he stopped to

mutter, but kicked and kicked and swam and kicked, then hopped out via

butter. I died when I heard that story. Okay, I was like,

this is I love this story. It's my new favorite story. My

new goal is to memorize that story. Right. So this is a silly

story, but it's a story of perseverance. Right. He didn't see any

way out, but he just kept going going, like if I just float

a little bit longer, right, And if you don't understand that joke,

it's a butter churning joke. Okay, So he churned the butter via his

kicking and stirring. Not everyone I told that joke got it. So I

realized I need to. Uh. I kind of tried to get it pre

cleared before I shared it up here. But it's a story an example of

perseverance, and as we're going to see today in our texts, this is

going to be one of the main points and topics that we're talking about today.

So I just want to have that already kind of in our mind.

Us processing and thinking about that as we get into our text today. So

actually, if you would open with me in your bibles to the Gospel of

Luke, we're gonna be looking at chapter eight, going through verses one through

fifteen, and then we're gonna pray and get into today's message. That sound

good, you guys with me solid, all right? Starting in chapter eight,

verses one through fifteen, says this. After this, Jesus traveled about

from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom

of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had

been cured of evil spirits and diseases, Mary called Magdalen, from whom seven

demons had come out, Joanna, the wife of Choosa, the manager of

Herod's household Susannah, and many others. These women were helping to support them

out of their own means. While a large crowd was gathering and people were

coming to Jesus from town after town. He told this parable a farmer went

out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seeds, some fell

along the path. It was trampled on and the birds ate it up.

Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered

because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up

with it and choked the plants. Still, other seed fell on good soil,

came up and yielded a crop one hundred times more than was sown.

When he had said this, he called out, whoever has ears to hear,

let them hear. His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He

said, the knowledge of the secrets of the Kingdom of God has been given

to you, but to others I speak imparables, so that though seeing,

they may not see, and though hearing they may not understand. This is

the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of God. Those

along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and

takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and

be saved. Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the Word

with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe

for a while, but in time of testing they fall away. The seed

that fell among thorns stand for those who hear, but as they go on

their way they are choked by life's worries, riches, and pleasures, and

they do not mature. But the seed on the good soil stands for those

with a noble and good heart who hear the word, retain it, and

by persevering, produce a crop. This is God's word. Let's pray where

God, we give you this time as we open your word, we're already

here, ready believing. And I asked that even after these songs that we

have sung, that you've been preparing our own hearts like soil, that you've

been preparing us or God, as we prepare to receive the word that you

have for us today. We just asked we'd be receptive, that we'd be

good soil, that you'd be with us, and that we would walk out

of here today encouraged and ready to look more like you and be who you've

called us to in Jesus name. Everyone said, Amen. Okay. So

we've been in a series called Luke The Orderly Account of Truth. In this

series, we've been going verse by verse through the Gospel of Luke, and

Luke writes at the beginning of his Gospel account that he has carefully investigated the

life in ministry of our Lord Jesus and he's written it down to confirm,

give confidence and certainty pertaining to what his friend Theophilis, who he was writing

to, had been taught about Jesus. By God's grace, we actually get

to benefit from this historical count about Jesus as well. Today we're gonna be

looking at an incident where Jesus tells a gathering crowd up parable and then turns

and explains the parable to his questioning disciples or his disciples who want to know

what he was just talking about. So we're gonna jump right into it.

If you're taking notes. Today's message is titled the Importance of Perseverance. Let's

start with our first section of verses. We're gonna be looking at verses one

through three says this. After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and

village to another, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God. The

Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil

spirits and diseases. Mary called Magdalen, from whom seven demons had come out,

Joanna, the wife of Choosa, the manager of Herod's household Susannah,

and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own

means. Okay, so we get like a lot of information, right right,

kind of get this scene change that Luke provides for us, and we

get all this information kind of what's going on, where he's at, who's

with him. So we're gonna look at those things really quick. We see

here that Jesus once again is traveling from town to town proclaiming the good news

of the Kingdom of God. With him are the twelve and those are the

apostles that he had appointed that we saw just a couple chapters ago. And

also we see some women of whom we actually get the names of three.

Amazing enough, two of these women, two of these three women who were

named, would be the first to share the gospel to the disciples. Two

of these women are gonna be the first ones to be the witnesses of an

empty tomb and go back to the disciples and say, you guys are gonna

believe it, and they're like, you're right, we don't believe you.

We're gonna have to see for ourselves. That's the Duncan version, but that's

basically how that went. They're the two women who got to see the empty

tomb first, and that was Mary Magdalene and Joanna. And here we get

to see a little bit, just a tiny bit about who they were.

We learned here that Mary had had seven demons cast out of her. We

have Joanna, the wife of choose A, Herod's household manager. And Herod

was like a local ruler of that area, and so Joanna's husband managed Herod's

household. So Joanna's husband was a household manager of this ruler, Herod.

And it says that she was following Jesus, so she would have been a

prominent woman in that society, having been married to this man. And it

says Susannah and many others. And interesting enough, this is the only mention

of Susannah in all scripture. We don't know who Susanne is, but here's

something that's kind of cool. We do know that she was someone that was

following Jesus, and she must have been of some significance or kind of notoriety,

even among Theophilis or the early Church, do have been able to be

mentioned by name and have a people know that kind of who they were talking

about. It says many others. So he also had other disciples following them.

So we see Jesus as the twelve these women and many others with him,

and as we saw and know from learning about the twelve the twelve Disciples

or Apostles a few weeks ago, we can see that Jesus is surrounded from

or by people from all walks of life. He is fishermen, tax collectors,

wives of prominent men, and many others, or even just like sinners

who have been healed, or people who are deemon possessed who have now been

freed of that and are now following him, which is really cool. It

really does show that no matter where who we are or where we come from,

God can call us from any place that we find ourselves in. He's

surrounded by people from all walks of life. He's surrounded by people who are

following him from every walk of life, which is good news, right,

It's good news for us. But we can no matter where he calls us

from. We can make all the excuses, have all the reasons we can

have other people give us all the reasons why we can't be following Jesus.

But we see here that Jesus's ministry and work changes and impacts the lives of

everyone. The last part of the verse tells is that these women were providing

for Jesus out of their own means. This is actually really cool. That

is, Jesus is on mission and there's those who are following him. Those

people who are following him have been delivered by him. All these different things

are now providing for Jesus out of their own means. Jesus had an interesting

enough too, is Jesus had also called the twelve to follow him. He

said, leave everything and follow me, Leave everything and follow me. And

now if Jesus called me and said leave everything and follow me, there would

be some hesitancy, right because everything I like a bed, I like to

eat. How are we going to be provided for? But we're told here

that they were being provided for. That we're relying on the generosity and provision

of others who were being blessed by their ministry. So small side application,

in what ways can we help support the ministry and mission that God has blessed

us or blessed you through with the means that He's given you. And the

only reason I point this out is because not usually out of ill intent,

a lot of times we can enjoy the blessings of ministry and forget or maybe

don't realize yet that we have the amazing opportunity to contribute and support the ministry

that will continue to bless us and others. And the thing is that I'm

not going to define that for you. I don't think I should define that

for you, because that's between you and God. But if you are receiving

and benefiting from the ministries that you partake in, you should take it to

God and ask him how you can use the means that He's given you to

support the work that he is doing. So we're going to move on to

the next portion of our text. Verses four through eight says this, while

a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town,

he told this parable. A farmer went out to sow his seed.

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

trampled on, and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky soil

or ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had

no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and

choked the plants. Still, other seed fell on good soil, it came

up and yielded a crop one hundred times more than what was more than was

sown. When he had said this, he called out, whoever has ears

to hear, let them hear. So Here Jesus tells these people gathering,

these crowds gathering around Jesus, and Jesus turns to them and tell them a

parable. It's a parable about a sower and his seed and the different soils

that it falls on and what happens as a result. Jesus is speaking to

an agricultural society, meaning a lot of them would have been farmers or even

close to or familiar with the process of growing their own food, and so

Jesus tells them this parable. We see seed sow in some lands on a

path that's trampled and eaten by birds. Some on rocks and starts to grow,

but withther is away because of lack of moisture, Another fell among thorns,

was choked, and lastly some seed fell on good soil where the seed

actually grew up and yielded a crop. Now, if you were a farmer

or a person in that crowd, what would you have gathered from Jesus's parable?

If you were a farmer. Any good farmer would have recognized that what

Jesus had just described was the expected result from some seed. What Jesus just

described is the expected result from sowing seed, that some was bound to land

on the path and be eaten, that others would be dried up or choked

out by rocky soil and weeds, and that some would land on good soil

and would actually take root and produce something. And in one of the commentaries

that I was reading, interesting enough, they were talking about the way that

they used to scatter seed back in the day, is that it was much

more like you're going outside and you're just throwing it to the wind. You're

taking it out and so it literally could go anywhere because you're throwing it out

there. It's not like us in our little tiny home gardens where we make

a little half inch circle or hole and put the one seed in and hope

and pray that something will come of it. It's not like that. They

would take the seed and they're casting it out to anywhere that it could go,

and we're casting it like that, Well, it's not going to discriminate

it. The wind could take it. All kinds of places. So I'm

no farmer, and I don't know much about you. But what is the

point of planting a seed? Well, normally it's going to be to yield

whatever crop that you planted. Right. I want flowers, so I plant

flower seeds. I want watermelons, so I plant watermelon. I want corn,

I plant corn seeds or some flower seeds, or any of those things.

That my expectation is that they grow up to become what they should be.

That is why we plant. That is, we hope or with the

hope of the seed coming to fruition and bearing some kind of produce. So

Jesus gives this parable to this crowd and gives three examples of seeds that never

come to fruition as a result of the soil. Three examples they never come

to fruition, and then the last one, finding good soil, matures and

then produces. So anyone in those days would have known that the only good

result of the four examples was the fourth one, because it was the only

thing that did what it was intended to do right at the very least.

As a farmer in those days, that's what you could have gathered. So

we're gonna move on oh, actually, and right after he says this parable,

Jesus speaking to the crowd, cried out, he who has ears to

hear, let him hear. Jesus then, yep, yep, I just

read that. Moving on in our textas says these Luke eight nine through ten.

His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, the knowledge

of the secrets of the Kingdom of God has been given to you, but

to others, I speak in parable, so that those seeing they may not

see, though hearing they may not understand. So the disciples hear him say

this parable to the crowd, but they want to know what Jesus is really

getting at. He says, those with ears to hear, let them hear.

And they're kind of like, yeah, you said something. I'm not

picking up exactly what it is. Can you explain it to us? And

by God's grace, Jesus tells them the meaning of the parable. And He's

not only going to tell them the meaning of the parable, but he tells

them why he's speaking in a parable. In the first place. Jesus is

telling his disciples those who follow him that he will all right, yeah,

let's go back out. Jesus turns to his disciples and tells them that they

have the unique blessing and opportunity to be given the meaning and understand the secrets

of the Kingdom of God. But for others he is speaking in parables,

not by accident, but on purpose. This is really interesting, Jesus purposefully

speaking in parables. And the reason that he's doing this is because now he's

been going from town to town proclaiming this good news, actually very clearly.

He'll open scrolls and say it's fulfilled today. And now he's moving into and

there's people who accept him and start to follow him, and other people are

kind of like, I don't know about this guy. And other people were

like, we don't believe you. How dare you say that? That's ridiculous?

How can you claim that about yourself? And so now there's almost the

sense of judgment starting to come upon the people. They've started to reject him

and not listen to the clear words that he's speaking. And now there's a

sense of judgment that is coming. And it's almost in the senses of if,

if, if you haven't been listening and understanding by now the clear teachings

that Jesus has been saying, then now it is going to be even harder.

You have a hard heart, Well, now it's going to be hard

for you to understand what I'm teaching you. I tried to tell you the

truth, and you didn't want anything to do with that. And this is

a fulfillment. He's quoting from the prophet Isaiah and Isaiah sixty nine, so

you can go look for yourself in chapter six. So Jesus is actively fulfilling

this prophecy in chapter from Isaiah. He then goes on to explain the parable.

So he tells them why he's speaking in parables. And now he's gonna

go through and go step by step through why or what the parable means.

This week in message Prepper was kind awesome because I was like, Jesus just

teaches a message. I just gonna say what he said. I don't have

to interpret it because he just says he tells us. So let's look at

the meaning. Starting in verse eleven, he goes to tell them what the

parable means. This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is the

word of God. The seed is the word of God. So immediately Jesus

starts to make the parable clear. He says, the seed is the word

of God. That is, when the good news is spread or God God's

word is spoken, it goes out like a seed being spread on different soils.

Now, this is exactly what Jesus himself had been doing. He'd been

going from town to town proclaiming the good news. And Jesus very soon is

going to be sending his own disciples to do the same thing. To go

proclaim the good news, to go proclaim the message of the Kingdom, go

proclaim the word of God. And later, after Jesus has resurrected from the

dead, and right before he goes into heaven, he's going to give his

disciples a what's referred to as the Great Commission. And like we talked about

in our church mission, which is to love God and love people, reach

the loss, and make disciples. Those last two pieces come from the Great

Commission. Let's look at it. In Matthew chapter twenty eight says, therefore,

go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of

the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to

obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always to

the very end of the age. They were commissioned by Jesus to take the

word of the Lord out into the world. And in Acts we see over

and over again this happen. And here's just a couple of examples. Acts

sixty seven says this, So the word of God's spread, the number of

disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to

the faith, which is kind of cool. And this is a side note,

so just forgive me. But now every time I'm seeing the word goes

out or the word is spread, I literally I'm kind of picturing the apostles

go out into their different regions and they're starting to spread this word. So

all throughout Acts, this is just a couple of places, but we see

it. They'll go teaching, they'll go proclaiming, they'll go rebuking from with

the word, and we see the apostles taking God's word everywhere, just like

Jesus had told them to do. What can we glean from this, well,

very simply put, the Word is meant to be shared. The Word

is meant to be shared. God's word is not something to be kept to

ourselves, but it is something to be spread and shared with others. Just

like a seed isn't meant to be stored up and kept in a silo.

The seed has a purpose, and that is for it to be spread,

to reproduce, to create more So, Jesus has told them that the seed

represents the Word. And now what Jesus is going to tell his disciples this

is very helpful, and this is gonna be very helpful for us, is

just like the farmer had the expectation of different results, Jesus tells his disciples

what could be expected when the Word goes out to the world. This is

gonna be very helpful for us because a lot of us have shared the Gospel

with other people and walked away disappointed by what happened, walked away not understanding

why that was the case, or what's wrong, or what's going on or

what happened. And Jesus is going to lay it out these various different expectations

of different soils. So he gives four examples, four soils representing four souls

or four hearts. We're gonna look at the first one, and that is

of the seed that falls on the pathway Luke eight to twelve. Those along

the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes

away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be

saved. That's a nasty verse. The devil would come and take away the

word from their hearts, so the first result that they can expect is that

of blatant unbelief. That there would be blatant unbelief, And all throughout scripture

we see the various ways that this is actually described. We see in John

one nine through eleven the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into

the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made

through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which

was his own, but his own did not receive him. A little bit

farther down, in John three nineteen through twenty says this, this is the

verdict. Light has come into the world, but people love darkness instead of

light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and

will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.

And in Tewo Corinthians four three through four we see a very similar image to

what we see here in our text today. And even if our Gospel is

veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing the God, the lowercase

g God, that Satan of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers

so that they can cannot see the light of the Gospel that displays the glory

of Christ, who is the image of God. So here in these different

verses are just confirming what Jesus is already saying that when the Gospel goes out,

there's gonna be a response that is natural to man to reject God's light,

reject God's word, and this done from their own evil and hard heart,

as well as the blindness caused by satan as to not believe or see

the light of the Gospel. This is the first thing the disciples can expect

when sharing God's word blatant unbelief. Jesus then moves on to two more examples,

and I'm grouping them together because both of these examples are that of false

converts, that is, people who at first look outwardly like they are genuine

believers, but never truly were. We're gonna look at our first example Luke

eight thirteen. Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the Word

with joy. When they hear it sounds good, it seems positive, but

they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time

of testing they fall away. That is, there will be people who hear

the Word and seem to receive it with joy and enthusiasm. It's good news,

there's a good reason to receive it with joy and enthusiasm. But just

because you're excited about something doesn't make your faith real. And actually, because

of this, there are actually loads of churches and ministries who have built entire

ministries off of just creating exciting atmospheres to get people hyped up about Jesus,

and then they'll claim to have made thousands of converts. But what happens when

that excitement goes away? What happens when the bells and whistles and the lights

and fog machines, all those different things go away. If they did have

real face, it would still be it will still be there. Because here's

the deal. There's nothing necessarily wrong with having joyous worship services or joyous and

exciting evangelistic events. But as the famous saying goes, what you win them

with you win them too. So if they came to my church because I

had the best snacks ever. If I lose the snacks, are they gonna

keep coming? But if they come to church and they hear God's word openly

saying the greatness of God and Jesus and his accomplishment and salvation, and they

hear His word opened and proclaimed, and that's what they're one two, Well,

then all we have to do is make sure that we keep singing biblical

songs and opening our bibles as a church. And at the point where we

stop doing that, don't call us a church anymore. So we're gonna look

more closely at what this text is talking about. It says that those who

receive the Word with joy, but when testing comes, they fall away.

That testing can be various trials experience in life, or even straight up persecutions.

But it says here that they have no root, so they fall away

in the midst of the testing. And in the Gospel of Matthew, when

he records this parable by Jesus, he puts it like this Matthew thirteen twenty

one. But since they have no root, they last only a short time.

When trouble or persecution comes because of the Word they quickly fall away.

So here in Matthew, he actually kind of sreads a little bit of a

different light on it that it's specifically persecutions regarding the word that I So,

oh you're with that, Jesus fellow. Oh wait, you believe that book.

When those things come that we start to shrink back, that we start

to pull back. And here's the deal. Every single one of us,

every believer or professed believer, is going to encounter trials and persecutions. That's

gonna happen. Jesus tells us in this world you will have trouble. But

take heart, I've overcome the world. Praise God. Also, we're gonna

have trouble. This world is filled with troubles. We need to have set

expectations that are accurate and scriptural, and with the times that we live in,

even just standing up for basic truths revealed by scripture and the way that

God created the world, we can start to potentially expect it even more.

Lots of us know the eggshells that are eggshells that we may feel like we

have to walk on in our workplaces, our families, set or schools.

But we need to be careful that as we go forward, that we are

not ashamed or shrink back from the Word of God or the Gospel in which

we found our hope, not pull back from that. It says that those

who fall away are those who don't have a root meaning what that they're shallow

believers. As soon as hard times come, they will abandon the Word that

they once seem to take so much joy in. And the thing is is

that this happens even during the lifetime of Jesus. When Jesus was doing his

own ministry, he saw people receive it with joy. They're like, sweet,

we got to eat gloves of bread and fishes. And I heard he

talk sometimes and they're really excited about what he's gonna do next. And then

Jesus actually opens his mouth. You know that this is a hard teaching.

I don't know about this. I don't know if I really could be associated

with this. What are people gonna say when they start hearing that I agree

with the things you're saying. Even during Jesus's own ministry, he saw people

start to shrink back or wither up. So Jesus is telling his disciples that

just because someone receives the Word with joy doesn't mean that they're genuine believers.

The test is whether or not they last. That is why we see time

and time again throughout the scriptures the call to persevere until the end. We're

gonna look at several verses concerning this because I think it's going to be helpful

for us to see how much scripture does talk about perseverance, but also hopefully

be an encouragement to us that we may need to hear these verses right now

in our own seasons of life. So let's look at them. Hebrews ten

through verses thirty nine. Remember those earlier days after you had received the light,

when you endured a great conflict full of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly

exposed to in soul and persecution. At other times you stood side by side

with those who were so treated. You suffered along with those in prison,

and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property. That's a high call, because

you knew that you yourselves had a better and lasting possessions. So do not

throw away your confidence it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so

that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He

has promised for in just a little while. He who is coming will come

and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And

I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back. But we do not

belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have

faith and are saved. The contrast we see here at the end of the

of these verses is that there are those who shrink back and those who have

faith. That there's that is the true faith, will carry you to the

end and save you. When we see this emphasize, actually, earlier in

Hebrews, I could have probably just done this one instead of doing like seven

verses Hebrews three fourteen says this we have come to share in Christ if indeed

we hold our original conviction firmly to the end. If indeed we hold our

original conviction firmly to the end, I'm gonna share a couple more verses because

the New Testament has so many calls to persevere and endure through the sufferings,

because if we don't, it shows that our faith is not genuine. And

we're actually gonna see what these trials do to our faith, because just like

if we were to take a chunk of gold and put it into a fire.

The purpose that we would do that is to burn off all the stuff

that's not gold. We just want peer We want peer gold. So we're

gonna try and burn up everything that isn't gold and be left with a more

pure gold. But what happens if you had this chunk that you're like,

look at my gold, and you put in the fire and the entire thing

burned up, you'd realize you didn't have any gold to begin with. So

and James, we see the purpose of these trials. James one two through

four says, consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you

face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith

produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and

complete, not lacking anything. All the pieces are right there. James one

twelve, couple verses down. Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial,

because having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that

the Lord has promised to those who love him. James five eleven, Brothers

and Sisters. As an example of patience in the face of suffering, take

the prophets who did what spoke in the name of the Lord. They spoke

God's word. As you know, we count, as you know, we

count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and

have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion

and mercy. So James gives us all these examples of how testing proves and

strengthens the genuineness of our faith, all to the end that we reach the

end and receive the eternal life that has been promised. Once again, Jesus

is telling his disciples is that when the word goes out, it's not enthusiasm

that counts, but the perseverance in the original confidence and belief. So they

can expect to see people receive it with joy but then fall away. That's

the first kind of fault convert. It's gonna kind of pick up here.

Jesus then moves on to the second kind of false convert. It has the

same thing in principle. They don't persevere, but it's for different reasons.

Let's look at it. Luke eight fourteen. The seed that fell among the

thorn stands for those who hear but as they go on their way, they

are choked by life's worries, riches, and pleasures, and they do not

mature. We're seeing someone who hears the word, but as they go on

the way, the wrong priorities in their life choke them out, and they

do not mature. They do not bear fruit. We see three examples given

here. They're choked out by life's worries, and honestly, in today's society,

this is pretty much anything. We're one of the most worried, anxious

societies on the planet, and because of those worries, we can start to

prioritize our life in alignment with getting rid of those worries at any cost,

instead of submitting them to the Lord and casting our anxieties on the Lord knowing

that he cares for us. When our jobs take a turn, when our

health starts to go bad, when we have family turmoil, do we abandon

our commitment to the Lord in pursuit of worldly desires or comforts, living as

if this is the only life that we have, because really that's what it

is. Things take a turn and we go like, well, this is

all I got, so I gotta hold on to it. But for believers.

We know that we have a better lasting possession, something to come,

something that will not fade. Will we uproot our faith to chase after worldly

comforts. The next example is that of riches, that is, those that

will have their belief choked out by chasing riches. For Timothy six y ten

says this, for the love of money is a root of all kinds of

evil. Some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves

with many griefs. Thirdly, ured, so there's this danger in pursuing status

riches in money because they will lead you away from Christ, or they can

lead you away from Christ and leave you with nothing but death and grief because

they won't satisfy you. They will be destroyed. They will not You will

die one day and you don't get to take that stuff with you. Matthew

six twenty one puts it in perspective for us, for where your treasure is

there, your heart will be. Also, what are you chasing after?

What are you pursuing? Because that is going to show you what you truly

treasure in your heart. Thirdly, we see of pleasure two. Timothy three

two through five says this, this is referring to the last days. But

still it looks pretty. We can point a lot of things in society that

look like this as well. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of

money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedience to their parents, ungrateful,

unholy without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self control, brutal, not

lovers of the good, treacherous, rash conceded, lovers of pleasure rather than

lovers of God. Having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have

nothing to do with such people that there's people who put on godliness, but

when you look at their life doesn't look like it. What they pursue,

what their priorities are. They may be able to talk a great godly talk,

maybe in church. They are the ones who even look like they're godly,

but they don't let you get close to them Monday through Saturday. They

don't want you to know what they look like. James four, f you

adulterous people. Don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God.

Therefore, anyone who chooses to be friend, to be a friend of

the world, becomes an enemy of God. Scripture clearly warns believers to be

careful not to chase after the worries, riches, and pleasures of this world,

because it can choke out the faith you profess to have. And when

these things become the priority in your life over God, it starts to actually

show the true status of your heart. It starts to show the type of

soil that you have in your response to the word. Jesus tells that those

who are choked out by such things end up never maturing. That is,

the seed that is supposed to grow up and mature and bear fruit is choked

out and never does what it was intended to do, thus showing once again

a seed that failed to bring about the desire result. So Jesus tell us

the disciples what can be expected when the Word is spread. There's gonna be

blatant unbelievers. There's gonna be false converts who fall away because of persecutions.

There's gonna be those who are choked out via wrong priorities in the pursuit of

worldly desires. And now we get to our last and final example. And

I need the band to come up, please and thank you. Luke eight

fifteen says this, But the seed on good soil stands for those with a

noble and good heart who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering,

produce a crop. Jesus tells them that the seed that falls in the

good soil is the one who hears it, retains it, and by persevering

produces fruit that just like we saw in James, it's those who go through

trials, but that their faith doesn't falter, but is actually strengthened and refined

by these trials. Jesus describes the good soil as those who hold their original

conviction firm to the end, to the point where they actually mature as a

plant and produce fruit. And it is those who will receive eternal life.

And just like the farmer who would have known that the first three examples weren't

good for anything, a seed that never matures through persevering the elements and never

produces any crop is worthless and only good to end up just being dug up

and having people restart. But the seed that endures, the seed that matures

and produces, is the seed that landed on good soil. And Jesus is

telling his disciples on how to recognize genuine faith that there are those who have

blatant unbelief due to the blindness that they will not believe the gospel that those

who will fall away because of persecutions or worldly pursuits, but that they're to

look for as a mark of true, genuine, saving faith, as the

faith that perseveres and produces through those things. We need to be clear is

Jesus isn't telling his disciples on how to change the soil. Jesus is saying,

so do this to change the soil. That's not what he's saying.

He's saying, when you go out to spread the seed, this is what

you can expect. This is how you will recognize true and genuine faith.

He's warning them that there's going to be those who won't last, and that

should be expected. It's not what we want, right, It's not what

we hope for, but it should be expected. It shouldn't catch us by

surprise that people fall away, which is why later when the apostle John is

right into other believers, he explains those who have fallen away like this,

it's very interesting and first John two nineteen says this, they went out from

us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had

belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they're going,

or yeah, but they're going. Showed that none of them belonged to us.

There will be unbelievers, and there will be false conforts. But those

who persevere, those who produce and grow into full maturity, are the seed

that have fallen on good soil. So how do we apply this text to

our lives today? Well, Jesus tells his disciples how to recognize genuine faith,

and he tells them that they can expect others to reject the word,

either at the beginning or even sometime later. And every single one of us

most likely could think of someone who falls in one of these categories. The

blatant unbeliever, the false converts, people who genuinely seem to have loved Jesus

and then walked away from all of it for one reason or another. We've

seen these people who love the world more than they love the Lord. We've

seen true believers, those who've actually grown in maturity and were like, I

never thought, God, what's capable of saving that type of person? But

God proved me wrong. And this makes sense that we've all seen these types

of people because it's what Jesus tells us we can expect to see and where

do we fall? Where are we trending towards what soil? Do we look

like if we were to examine ourselves, because the common threat in each one

of these examples is perseverance. There are those who persevered and there's those who

didn't. Just like we looked at a few weeks ago, Jesus told his

disciples that a person is recognized by their fruit, that is what comes out

of them, their actions, their way of life, their priorities. But

Jesus is making a point that it's to say that it's not just changed for

a day. It's not just bearing fruit for a little while, but the

one who lasts and perseveres in producing that they continue to produce, that their

persevering continues to show fruit in their life. I can try and look holy

for one day, but am I going to get tired? I will get

tired. And that's where I hear these scriptures that tell me to persevere,

to continue, that my faith is being refined, and I take that and

it encourages me. We've looked at so many verses today about the importance of

persevering. If Jesus had taught his disciples that genuine faith is faith that perseveres,

then it makes sense that so much of the New Testament is a call

to continue in the faith, fight the good fight, run the race,

to persevere in the faith, and to not give up, but to continue

in the faith that God has provided for us, trusting that He will see

us through to the end. We put our hope and trust in Him that

He's going to see us through, that He is going to hold us.

We sang about it, and actually we're going to be singing about for closing

as well, that the mighty hand of God, he will never let us

go. That we trust and put our faith and hope in him, that

the faith, the true saving faith that we have in Him, has secured

us in his hand. And I know that there's many times in my own

life that I've been grateful to the Lord for the continued strength to persevere,

and many times that I've been worried to looking to the people around me,

going like, I don't know if we're all going to make it out of

this. I pray to God that I'll make it out of this, and

I pray to God that the people around me are going to make it out

of this. In twenty nineteen, my wife and I we lost a baby

in the womb at about six weeks and I remember sitting in the room after

the doctor had left the room after the ultrasound, and there was like a

million things going through my own head, And one of the biggest things that

I was concerned about was how my wife was going to respond to God because

of the news. Right I was I already had my own things to work

through. I had already had my own things to be working through. But

I was also looking at her, going like, I don't know how this

is gonna affect you. This is not easy news to hear and for us

really, since the beginning of our marriage, at this point, even as

our walk as believers together, we hadn't really gone through much. We hadn't

really had a bunch of persecutions or trials that we really that we're really going

to test our and so I've got to like, I don't know what to

expect here. But after sitting in some silence, one of the first things

my wife said to me, Now, I genuinely believe it was a gift

of God for me and to her. But one of the first things that

she said to me was I know that God is good, but this is

hard. And in that moment, still amid a thousand of emotions and thoughts

going through my own head, I had one of the greatest senses of relief

and gratefulness to God because amidst his child there I was seeing like this fruit

a root of genuine faith that I was like, well, what's wrong with

God? What's up with him? It was like, there's the thing that

I'm sitting there going like all right, like I know God's good, but

how's my wife doing? How are we gonna work through this? And my

wife to be able to share with me She's like, I know God's good

and this is hard. I'm like that right sums it up. We affirm

the truth about who God is. That does not change, that does not

waver. That is our original confidence that He is good and merciful and just.

And now I'm going to with that knowledge walk through this hardship. It's

going to encourage me. It doesn't make this less hard, but now I

actually have the strength to walk through it confidently because I know that my God

is good. I'm not bringing that into question. If I bring that into

question, I have a whole bunch of other problems that I have to figure

out. There wasn't a shallow faith, it wasn't a false faith. It

was a true, durable, persevering faith. And so I've written down my

main point for today like this. If you're growing, keep going. If

you see life, if you see growth, if you see maturing and persevering

and producing, keep going, keep persevering and maturing in the faith that God

has granted you, hold on to and cling to the promise that He has

provided for us. Is we need to watch out lest we face trials and

have no roots. Watch out less we prioritize worldly pursuits over of comfort and

riches and pleasure over the Lord. John First John two fifteen through seventeen that

says this, do not love the world or anything in the world. If

anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them, that's

not loving. The fear of man right or having a fear of man.

Where I'd much rather look good in the eyes of the people around me,

So I'll deny Jesus or I'd much rather have a great life than maybe give

up and answer the call to what Jesus has called me to. I'd rather

chase money and rather than chasing the Lord who's called me to serve him and

give up everything for him. That's what's being talked about here. For everything

in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,

and the pride of life comes not from the Father, but from the

world. The world and its desires pass away. But whoever does the will

of God lives forever. These are the promises that we cling to. These

are the promises that help us continue to persevere forward. Don't be deceived in

the settling into something that will perish and pass away, but cling to the

good news that you've heard and persevere in it. Let's not become weary and

doing good, because we know at the proper time that we will reap a

harvest if we do not give up. We have the encouragements and scriptures to

make every effort to confirm your calling an election. For if you do these

things, you will never stumble. You will receive a rich welcome into the

eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And I love the

way that Hebrews twelve it puts it like this. Therefore, since we are

surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that

hinders, the sin that so easily entangles. And when I read that,

all I can think are the thorns that we're pushing off of us. And

let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes

on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of faith, for the joy set before

him. He endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the

right hand of the throne of God. Hallelujah. Is this is good news

that Jesus persevered. He literally went through hell on earth, He went through

death and persecution. Also that after being raised and sat at the right hand

of God, we would have access to God that there's now been away because

he shed his blood on our behalf. That if we put our faith in

trust and hope in Him, we will not perish, but we will have

eternal life. And this is good news. And I hope that if you

don't know Christ today, or maybe you felt even your faith wavering, that

you would hear the encouragement to cling to Christ and persevere in him because there's

a lasting, enduring treasure to come. You will not settle for the ways

of this world, but that right now the light of Christ should be breaking

through and shining on your hearts, that you would see and then, hopefully,

Lord, I prayed that we would be trusting in God's grace to run

the race, to fight the fight, and receive the crown of life.

It's a call to persevere. Would you please stand