Put it in the Ground - Pastor Kipp Penrod

Thank you for listening to this message from

Lifehouse Church. Morning. Good morning, good

morning. Man, this was a good morning. Listen,

that was some awesome praise and worship. You

could feel God's presence. So if the message

stinks, you already have a good reason to be

in the house of the Lord, right? You can go home

and say it was a good day. Come on, can we give

God glory? I never... We should never, ever take

the presence of God for granted. When you feel

God's presence, step in, because He's there.

I know He's always with us. The Word of God tells

us this. We're the temple of the Holy Spirit.

We're the temple of God. But at the same time,

when you feel God in a corporate setting... Just

step in and praise and worship because God moves.

He really does. Well, it's good to be with you

this morning. My better half is not here with

me today. She and her sisters are actually ministering

at her brother's church. They're there singing.

They all get together once about every five years,

it seems like, and do praise and worship together,

and they're there in Man's Choice, the metropolis

of Man's Choice. How many of you have ever been

to Man's Choice? Raise your hand. There's about

300 people in Man's Choice, so it's huge. Her

brother has a great church there, a thriving

church, and they're there ministering this morning.

But this morning, if you've got your Bibles,

you can go to the book of John. We're going to

continue on in the gospel of John chapter 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

I hope you've enjoyed working through the book

of John. There's so much great truth. There's

so much great word in John, and we're just going

to continue on. And where we're picking up today,

we're going to follow up. really kind of a time

when Jesus was going into Jerusalem. Now, I preached

about this on Palm Sunday, about Jesus going

into Jerusalem, and they were laying palm branches

and crying out, Hosanna, Hosanna, right? Glory

to God, right? King of Israel. They were just

saying, Hosanna. And it's super interesting because

my... One of my grandchildren, Mia, she's two

and a half years old. She's in Atlanta. Her mom

was teaching them about Easter this year. And

she did this little box of things that she put,

just different things that represent Easter.

She had a rock in there for the, you know, the

tomb, the rock that got removed from the tomb.

And she had some different things in there that

went along with the Easter story. And one of

the things that she put in there was like this

little leaf, right? Little plastic kind of palm

leaf thing. And she would have the girls, they're

two and a half and four, and she'd have them

get them out and she would tell the Easter story

and they'd repeat it back. And they'd get that

little thing out and they'd go, Hosanna, Hosanna,

right? And, you know, really what Jenna was trying

to do is just to get it. the story of Easter,

to stick in their heart and mind. And she said

they went to a restaurant, got at the restaurant,

and apparently Mia has a salad close by or something

on her plate, a garnishment. And she picked up

a leaf, and Jenna thought she was going to say,

ooh, yuck, I don't want to eat this. And she's

going, Hosanna! Hosanna! Yeah, in the restaurant.

She said it was awesome. It was great. But really,

that's what we're picking up in Scripture today,

is where right after the time when Jesus comes

into Jerusalem, they're crying out, Hosanna.

This is before he goes to the cross. And they're

crying out, Hosanna, because they know this.

They know this guy that's named Jesus has been

traveling from place to place, and he has the

power to heal. They know he has the power to

speak over nature and nature listens. They know

that he has power over the demons with just a

word. They even know that he has power over death

because he calls Lazarus back to life after four

days dead. And the crowd was yelling out. And

really what took place is he came into Jerusalem.

Following this, Jesus almost hit celebrity status.

He was in a place where everybody in that region

heard about him, knew about him, and he was almost

at celebrity status, and everybody wanted to

talk with him. Everybody wanted to meet with

him. Everyone was curious about this powerful

man. Everybody wanted something different from

him. Some believed that he was Messiah. Some

wanted just a healing. Some just maybe wanted

his autograph. I don't know. Probably if the

Today Show would have been around, they'd have

been calling him up for an interview. But among

these curious people, were people called the

Greeks, right? They were a Greek group of people

that were there in Jerusalem, and they wanted

to meet with Jesus. That's what we're going to

pick up today. John chapter 12, verse 20, it

John 12:20

says this. Now, there were certain Greeks among

those who came up to worship at the feast. Then

they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of

Galilee, and asked him, saying, Sir, we wish

to see Jesus. Philip came and told Andrew, and

in turn, Andrew and Philip told Jesus. So picture

this in your mind. It's this group of Greek people.

They come to the disciples. They start asking,

and these two disciples are going back and forth,

and they decide to go to Jesus and let Jesus

know, hey, there's this group of people who want

to talk to you, interview you, meet with you

for some reason, right? Verse 23 says, And Jesus

answered them, saying, The hour has come that

the Son of Man should be glorified. Jesus doesn't

even respond to the request. He isn't even worried

about the interview. He's got something completely

different in mind. He says, the Son of Man is

to be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you,

unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground

and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it

produces much grain. He who loves his life will

lose it, and he who hates his life, in this word,

will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves

me, let him follow me, and where I am, there

my servants will be also. If anyone serves me,

him my Father will honor. These group of people

want to interview Jesus, and Jesus is like, nope,

today I'm going to teach my disciples something.

I'm getting ready to leave. I'm getting ready

to be out of here after the resurrection takes

place, the crucifixion, the resurrection. And

my disciples need to know something, and my people

need to know something. He's not concerned with

an interview. He's on mission. He's on point

for the bigger plan of God. And instead of penciling

in an appointment, he teaches the disciples a

key kingdom of God principle. A key kingdom of

God truth, and it's this. We need to know what

it takes to produce fruit in the kingdom of God.

If you don't like the word fruit, you can say

profit, eternal profit, right? Eternal increase

of some kind. Kingdom dividends, whatever you

want to give it, whatever you want to call it.

He was teaching them what it takes to have increase

in the kingdom of God, and it might not be what

you think. Because Jesus lets the disciples know,

lets us know that you have to, if you're going

to get kingdom increase, you've got to put something

in the ground. Spiritual production begins with

putting something in the ground. Now, I need

to clarify right here. Notice I said put something

in the ground and not someone in the ground.

I don't want any, how many know the Bible still

says thou shalt not kill? Right? Physically or

in your mind, either one. Right? And some of

you might be like, a name raised to your head

when I said that. Like, yep, yeah, come on. That

would be profitable. I'll put them in. That's

not what we're talking about here. We're going

to put something in the ground to produce anything

of eternal value in our lives. Many times it

involves putting something in our life in the

ground, burying that thing, covering that thing

up. Because Jesus said it in 1224. He said, most

assuredly, I say unto you, unless a grain of

wheat. right, a seed falls into the ground and

dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces

much grain. Last week, 14 individuals stood across

this stage and they professed their faith and

their commitment to Jesus Christ. It was an amazing

week. Each one of them told a portion of their

story and each one of them really talked about

something that got buried in the ground, that

they put in the ground and out of that came life

through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, unless the

grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies,

it remains alone. It's this idea of burying something

that is not of God so that something of God can

come to life. And let me give you a little example,

a little experiment you can go home and do if

you think you don't fully understand this. I

want you to go home today, and if you want to

get the full effect of this, I want you to take

a seed of some kind. Find a grain of wheat, find

a kernel of corn, find some kind of seed. I want

you to place it on your living room table or

your kitchen table, place it on a plate, and

then I want you to wait and see if any production

happens with that grain. 365 days, leave it sit

there, and I want you to see if any kind of fruit

gets produced out of that thing, if there's any

kind of production. How many of you get back

there in 365 days? What's it going to look like?

Yeah, it's going to look like a seed sitting

on the plate, right? It's going to be, whether

you put it in a cup or a plate, it's just going

to be there. But until it's already dead, it's

already dry, but until you put that thing in

the ground, it's not going to produce anything.

It's got to be put in the ground. It's got to

be buried. If you take out same seed, you throw

it in a hole in the ground, you cover it back

up, right? You bury that thing. Less than 365

days from then, you're going to see fruit that's

produced. A kernel of corn will go into the ground,

and a corn stalk will shoot up. And it'll have

ears of corn on it. And you won't have one kernel

of corn. You'll have dozens and dozens and dozens

of kernels of corn. If you're going to have fruit

in the kingdom of God, eternally, spiritually

in some way, you've got to put that thing in

the ground. There are going to be things you're

going to have to bury, and you're going to have

to give it to Jesus and put it in the ground.

the ground. We want spiritual fruit in our lives,

but sometimes we don't want to put the thing

in the ground. Amen? That's true. If you want

humility in your life, guess what you got to

bury in the ground? Pride, right? You got to

put it in the ground. You got to kill that thing

off, cover it over. And because, how many know

the Word of God says, God gives grace to the

humble, but he resists the proud. You don't want

to be prideful. You don't want God resisting

you. You really don't. We confess. We repent.

We put that dead thing in the ground. And it

could be a sin thing that we put in the ground.

It could be shame we put in the ground. It could

be my anxiety and the depression that I'm walking

through. I want to start putting that thing in

the ground. Start covering that thing up and

see what Jesus can birth out of that thing. You

bury the dead thing in Jesus, and you're going

to start to see production in your life. It was

so awesome last week when everybody was up here

giving their testimonies. We heard from so many

people from different sides telling us and letting

us know the power of those testimonies. And Tony

Brandt, we were walking out. Tony, I don't know

if you remember this or not. We were walking

out of the sanctuary, and Tony looked at me,

and he said, this is fruit. This is fruit that

you see here. And he nailed it. All right? He

nailed it. Put it. in the ground. And I can tell

you in Scripture, this is not the only place

that Jesus talks about this. This isn't the only

place where he talks about planting something

in the ground for production. As a matter of

fact, we're going to go to Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

If you've got your Bibles, you can flip over

there. Jesus, again, teaches a parable. And I've

taught on this parable many, many times. And

there's multiple layers to this parable. And

you'll find it in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all

three Gospels, where Jesus talks about this seed.

And he says this, One out of the house, and he

sat by the sea. Picture this. Picture what was

being read here, right? He goes out and sits

by the sea, and great multitudes were gathered

together to him. So that he got into a boat and

sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

Then he spoke many things to them in parables,

saying, Behold, a sower went out to sow, and

he sowed some seed, and it 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 the earth. But when the

sun was up, they were scorched, and because they

had no root, they withered away. Some fell among

thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them,

but others fell on good ground. Say good ground.

Good ground. And yielded a crop, some a hundredfold,

some sixty, some thirty. Jesus said that there

was one and only one soil condition that's going

to produce fruit. 30, 60, and 100 -fold. Three

other conditions are going to not produce fruit.

Verse 9 said, he said, who has ears to hear,

let him hear. And the disciples came and said

to him, why do you speak to them in parables,

right? Why do you tell stories? And he answered

and said to them, because it has not been given

to you. It has been given to you to know the

mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them

it has not been given. Redeemed, saints of God,

sons and daughters of God, it has been given

to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom.

This is one of the mysteries of the kingdom.

One of the mysteries is that you have to bury

something for God, something that's not of God.

You've got to put it in the ground so God can

raise something out of it. This is a mystery

that is given to you but has not been given to

them. He says this in the Scriptures. Who's they?

Us, the saints, those who are redeemed. Who are

them? Those who reject Christ don't understand

this. The world doesn't get that you have to

take something and put it in the ground. They're

just grabbing for everything they can get. Jesus

goes on to explain a little more in 12. He says,

for whoever has, to him it will be given, and

he will have an 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 and shall not understand,

and seeing you will see and not perceive. For

the hearts of this people have grown dull, and

their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes

they have been closed, lest they should see with

their eyes and 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, and your ears, for they hear.

For surely I say to you that many prophets and

righteous men desired to see what you see and

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

not hear it. I want you to live and understand

the mysteries of God. There is a life in this,

and Jesus explains this parable. We're going

to read just a few more portions of Scripture.

Therefore, hear the parable of the sower. Jesus

explains this to his disciples. 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. This is the seed

that falls by the wayside. This is he who received

that seed on the hard place by the wayside. But

he who received the seed on a stony place, 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 little while. For when tribulation

or persecution arises because of the word, immediately

he stumbles. 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 and becomes unfruitful. But he

who received the word on good ground is he who

hears the word, understands it, who indeed bears

fruit and produces some a hundredfold, 60 and

some 30. Three conditions that seed does not

produce, does not produce, but one that produces

30, 60, and 100. First condition that yields

no spiritual fruit. If we are ignorant of God,

we will produce nothing. Turn to somebody that

you know and love sitting beside you and tell

them, don't be ignorant. Tell them right now,

don't be ignorant. Come on. Some of you have

been wanting to say that for a long time. Make

sure you know them and you love them, because

if you say it to somebody else, it's weird. All

right? Don't be ignorant. Ignorance of God, right?

Lack of knowledge of God. will produce nothing

in your lives. Lack of understanding of how he

works will produce nothing. Not knowing what

he expects, ignorance of his attributes, ignorance

of his authority, and the power that he produces,

and the power that can be in our lives. If we

want increase in Jesus, if we want fruit in our

lives, we cannot be ignorant of who God is. We

must know who God really is according to his

word. and not what our possible perception of

what God is. We sometimes make up in our minds

who God is, right? One of Satan's tactics is

to keep you ignorant of God. Keep you from understanding

who God really is. If he can keep you in the

imagination lane of who God is versus what God's

word really says, he can get you confused, he

can mess you up, and you will not have any fruit

in your life. He'll keep you fruitless as a Christian.

Man, I hear people talking all the time about

Jesus, and I'm thinking, are you reading the

same Bible that I'm reading? Right? You'll hear

them say something about Jesus, and I'm like,

I've never heard that anywhere or seen that anywhere.

Sometimes they talk about Jesus like he's the

man upstairs. Anybody ever hear that? Oh, he's

just a guy up in the attic. What? Where's that?

Like, what chapter and verse did you get that

out of? Jesus is in the attic somewhere. The

enemy wants to keep us ignorant. He wants to

give us a warped, perverted view of God, something

that's in our imagination. And this lack of understanding

of who God is will reduce God to something little

or narrow or something that doesn't look anything

like him. Satan doesn't want you to bury your

ignorance in the ground. He wants to keep you

in the dark. He wants to keep it unclear. He

doesn't want you reading the Word of God. He

doesn't want you involved in Bible recaps so

you're listening and reading the Word of God

every day and then getting a video to help you

understand. He doesn't want you involved in that

because if you start to know who God really is,

you're going to start to understand how big God

really is. You're going to start to understand

what He can really do. You can start to understand

the power that He really possesses. He doesn't

want that. at all, right? So we got to put ignorance

in the ground. You got to bury that thing. You

got to dive into understanding. And when you

do that, when you start to really understand

who God is out of his word, you're going to see

the fruit start in your life. You're going to

see what God can really do in your life. It's

true. What's next on this? What needs to die?

What needs to go into the ground? Shallow commitment

will produce nothing of eternal value. But godly

shallowness in your life will produce nothing.

If the roots don't run deep in Jesus, I will

produce nothing. He said this, but he received

the seed on the stony place. This is he who hears

the word and immediately receives it with joy,

yet he has no root in himself. But he only endures

for a little while. For when tribulation or persecution,

right, difficulty arises because of the word

of God, immediately he stumbles. This is faith

in God that takes root, but is not rooted. I

mean, I know there's a difference between the

two, right? There's a difference between taking

root and actually being rooted. This is the person

who understands some things about Jesus, but

they're not deeply rooted in Jesus. They may

understand some basics. They may have a few memory

verses, and that's great at the beginning. They

may even know a few Bible stories, but there's

no depth of root, no understanding. No serious

commitment to understanding and following who

Jesus is. It's just shallow. This is the person

who looks a little bit like a pine tree in a

windstorm. I don't know if you've ever, Travis

Hench is in the house. He's seen this plenty,

right? A strong wind comes along and blows a

pine tree over, you know, and it just flops over

on its side. And you can go by that thing. And

what does it look like on the end down by the

earth when that thing flips up? It's like a big

pan, right? It's just flat. Because on pine trees,

the roots tend to go out, and they just span

out in a circle. And if it doesn't have any kind

of root down it, when a good breeze comes, a

good heavy wind comes, a little adversity comes

its way, it begins to push against them. Poof!

It's over on its side. It's laying there. And

you got this big round pan on the end of it where

the roots just went across the surface. That's

what it's talking about. If you don't have any

root in Jesus, the first wind of adversity that

comes, the first time you got to take a little

persecution for being a Christian, you're over

on your side. And all this is just this shallow.

And the interesting part of this is, this is

really hard to see in our own lives because if

you go by a group of pine trees, they all look

the same, whether they got shallow roots or they're

deep. You go by them, they're all green. They

all look the same until the wind comes, till

the versity hits. And there's no root there.

You got to bury the shallowness. Shallow Christianity,

you've got to put that thing in the ground, and

you've got to get serious about finding out about

God, digging deep, going to prayer, getting in

that personal time with God where he's speaking

to you and you're speaking to him. You're listening

to what he has to say, and he's listening to

what you have to say. Guard this. Be militant

about this. You've got to have this in your life,

because if not, there's no fruit. There's no

fruit. Worship team, if you'd come. I'm going

to give you the third one, right? There were

three conditions. They didn't produce any fruit.

Three things you need to put in the ground. Jacked

up priorities will never produce eternal fruit.

Jacked up priorities. If I'm too busy for Jesus,

I will not produce fruit. If I'm too busy with

the wrong things, I will produce nothing for

the kingdom of God. If I'm engaged in all the

things that are earthly in kingdom and not in

God's kingdom, I need to bury my jacked up priorities.

I really do. This is Matthew 13, 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 and it

becomes unfruitful. Any activity and desire that

is prioritized over and above following Jesus

will stop production in your life. It'll stop

the fruit. This is one of the sneakiest attacks

and tactics of the devil. It really is. If he

can get you busy doing stuff, I mean, we get

busy doing stuff. Yeah. All right? I actually

said it this week. I do it all the time. Somebody

comes up, how's it going? Oh, I'm busy. Right?

That's my standard go -to answer. Oh, I'm busy.

I'm busy. But you can get so busy. And the enemy

loves this because for a lot of you who are walking

with God, he's probably not going to get you

with a deep temptation of some kind of sin, but

he can get you busy with something else. He can

get you sidelined with something else. And it

could be good things. It's not necessarily a

bad thing, an evil thing, or a sinful thing.

But if he can get you going enough and he can

get you busy enough, right, busy can actually

masquerade as fruitful. I don't know if you know

that or not. Busy can masquerade as fruitful.

It really can. We'll get so busy that it looks

like production. It looks like kingdom stuff's

happening. It looks like eternal things are going

on in our lives, but we're just busy. And there's

nothing eternal to it. Doing stuff and producing

nothing. Chasing the cares of life or chasing

after riches. All those kinds of things. Now

listen, I understand that you've got to go to

work. You should. That's biblical, by the way.

The Word of God tells us if you don't supply

for your family, you're worse than an infidel.

That's what the Word of God says. We've got to

go do all those things. But I'm talking about

priorities here. I'm talking about prioritizing

that over. If you've got jacked up priorities

in your life and you're chasing after those things,

kind of things, you're going to wonder why there's

no fruit in your life. You're going to wonder

where the production eternally is. And a lot

of times it's hard to gauge these things, but

you want to gauge where you're at with that,

I'm going to tell you something that only you

can do. If you want to know where your priorities

lie, take a look at your calendar and take a

look at your bank account. Take a look at your

calendar and take a look at your bank account.

It will reveal what you prioritize in life. It

really will. Take a look at those. We prioritize.

We spend time and money on what we prioritize.

We really do. And we've got to engage. And there's

sometimes we just got to put those things in

the ground. We got to bury them. We got to bury

them. end to this message from Lifehouse Church.

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