The Gospel Sows Seeds

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Take your Bible this morning and turn it to Mark chapter 4.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

For some of you that are chronological, this is messing you up if you're falling along.

Because we already went to Mark chapter 5.

Mark 5 · chapter mention

And my deepest apologies.

But I got to Mark chapter 6 and I realize everything in it I've already preached in these other sermons.

Mark 6 · chapter mention

So we went back and uh here we are.

The gospel sows seed.

And so Mark chapter 4, we're gonna jump in just a moment.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

I do want to ask you, we're gonna pray in a moment to be in prayer today for uh the Neely family, Jason and Renee and their family, as uh Jason's father, Kenneth, went to be home, went to be with the Lord uh midnight, Wednesday, and so uh funeral services are today in Alex City.

Be in prayer for them.

So faithful are they to this church family, and Kenneth has been uh in and out of this church many, many times.

He was a pastor for over 50 years.

Heather and I got to go and be a part of his retirement service from the ministry, and so uh be in prayer for that family also.

Uh I know that I mentioned the other week the Websters, but their uh celebration service for uh Mr.

Webster's father uh is today over at Double Oak in Chelsea.

So be in prayer for them as well.

And uh maybe you have some needs this morning, and uh we want to know and pray for you.

And so today, if you've got something before you leave this church, don't leave with it.

Leave with people caring for you, praying with you, and uh we look to minister in that way.

As you open your Bibles in Mark chapter 4, I'm introducing by letting you know the first point is about one sower.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

The gospel is given to us because of one.

It's one sower.

We're here because the gospel is of one person.

Today we are here to hear from the sower and to get close to his words.

And as we open up there in Mark 4, 2, and 3, look at what it says.

It says, Then he taught them many things by parables and said to them in his teaching, listen.

Behold, a sower went out to sow.

So this is our job today.

The mandate that's been given right at the front of this as he talked to the sow, listen to his words.

The sower has a word to say.

Would you listen?

Father, we love you, and we're thankful for the opportunity we have to come and hear your word.

God, uh, we don't take for granted the freedom we have to hear this word and how this word uh changes lives.

And we've already been challenged.

Lord, I pray that you would till up this ground, that you would remove things that are in the way.

Lord, even before we start, I pray that you would calm our spirits.

Lord, free our minds of the things that would have us go all kind of other directions, rebuke any work of Satan from this place.

And God, just let us hear from you and rest in what you have to say to us.

Lord, we pray for the Neely family and the Webster family today.

We lift them to you and ask, God, as they both grieve and celebrate, God, that you'd walk with them and God comfort them and be their grace.

And God, I pray for the gaps in their hearts in the days ahead that you would fill them.

And God, uh, just help them through this time.

Help them know that they're loved by their church family.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Letter A this morning is this the sower is incessantly casting out.

The sower is a sower that spreads seeds, and it's in hopes of a harvest.

Not just haphazardly throwing out seed, but seed is thrown with the hope that there will be a harvest.

In John 4 2, in fact, the disciples are talking to Jesus, and he says, this, you're nourished by food.

My nourishment is the harvest.

And what they were doing there, they were debating why Jesus would talk while Jesus would be casting seed with this woman at the well, and they had a whole list of reasons why they wouldn't be speaking to the woman at the well.

And so Jesus shares with them that it is his nourishment to do the Father's will.

And the Father's will is to plant water and see a harvest.

And I'm gonna tell you today that there are many measures of casting seed.

And the word of God says Jesus says that he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance in faith.

And so me and you, by extension, we are sowers of the one sower.

We are a sower by extension.

Not only us, the Bible says that the heavens declare his glory.

The heavens are an arm, are by extension a sower of who God is.

Prayer is an arm by extension to sow.

Giving is an arm.

We're all sowing and reaping something.

The Bible says that in Galatians 6, 7.

It says, be not deceived, God is not mocked.

Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.

So today, you're a farmer, whether you like it or not.

The Bible says that the sower is casting out seed.

He's using heaven, he's using us, he's using prayer, but seed is being cast.

Letter B is the sower is intermittently cast down.

I want you to look at verse 9 and 12 of chapter 4.

Laying some groundwork, and then we'll jump in deep.

It says, and he said to them, after he said already, listen, in verse 9, he says, and he said to them, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

And then in verse 12 it says, so that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest they should turn and their sins be forgiven them.

That sounds like a mouthful, we'll break it down.

Jesus says first, listen.

That word is aku, and that means do not turn a deaf ear.

That means affix to something.

Listen, to hear and not do is not to listen.

He says, He who has ears, hear.

Why?

Morgan said this about Jesus' use of parables because that verse there that we just read is a little confusing.

It almost sounds like the parables are used to confuse.

And he says, This Jesus didn't use parables to blind people, but because they were blind.

Therefore, Jesus used the parabolic method in order to make them look again, to peer deeper.

Not in order to prevent them from coming to forgiveness, but in order to lure a new and deeper attention.

Have you ever heard something said, huh?

I don't know if I understand that.

Now some people go with that and go, well, that's fine, I don't understand it.

But some people go, I need to understand that.

And that is what Jesus is doing through the parable, is he's trying to get a deeper attention to what's been said.

And here is the key.

If they found the sower of the seed, then they'll find illumination.

Disciples had the key, right?

The disciples were with the key, and still yet, hearing the first time, they didn't understand.

And that's why hearing and listen is divided.

He says, You hear, hear with ears, but listen.

How many husbands know today you've heard a lot of things, but did not listen?

Anyone?

Anybody willing to be honest?

Anybody went to the grocery store before?

So, did you even listen?

Too many times I've come back and I buy extra things just to save myself.

If she says two, I get three.

If she says three, I get five.

But inevitably, I get back and she's like, Did you even listen?

I'm like, I just wanted to be the hero with the grocery sacks.

And here I was, missing one thing.

The au jus packet always gets me.

So I buy ten instead of two.

He says, Listen.

Listen, don't just hear.

Listening is the application of the words that were said to you.

Listen.

Well, this seed, casting is unpredictable business.

I want to share with you a verse.

Ecclesiastes 11, 6 says, In the morning, sow your seed.

And in the evening, do not withhold your hand, for you do not know which will prosper, either this or that, or whether both alike will be good.

You don't know.

Casting seed is a business that you don't know.

It's unpredictable.

But the mandate is casting seed.

But no farmer knows.

It's been said before that the biggest gamblers on the planet are farmers, right?

They cast out seed.

You can't count how many seeds and what is going to be produced, but you cast seeds.

It's interesting, Jesus is impacted by the response to seed casted.

I said he's intermittently cast down.

Luke 19, 41 says, as he drew near, he saw a city, and as he looked over it, he was overwhelmed.

It says that he wept for that city.

He looked and he was overcome by what?

He was overcome by the lostness of the city.

He'd healed that city, he'd cleansed people of their sins in that city.

He'd been casting authoritative words all throughout that city, but by and large, the majority had rejected who Jesus was, and he was grieved because the sower in Luke 19, 10 says he came to seek and to save that which was lost.

He was grieved over lostness.

Do you ever grieve over lostness?

When did it become commonplace?

When did we get so tied up in the doing and the building of life that we became unmoved by lostness?

When we were at Calvary Baptist Church, there was a prayer room and had a big cross.

And there was never a week in the entirety of that prayer room that somebody's name, a lost person's name, wasn't nailed to that cross.

People came and prayed at that cross over that name.

Have you grieved recently over lostness?

I've got a picture of the boardwalk at Ocean City that I want you to see.

Ocean City, Maryland, I grew up with vacation there.

And when I'm like five or six, I was uh on that boardwalk with my parents, and we were riding rides, and for the next three, four hours, it didn't come across my five or six-year-old mind that my parents were no longer around.

And I was riding rides at my leisure.

Three hours.

Can you imagine, young mothers?

Your five or six-year-old, 50,000 people can fit on that boardwalk.

And I was lost for three hours, and I was having, I mean, a great time.

There's a picture of me even when they found me, and I'm riding, and they these rides take tickets, so I don't know how they were letting me in.

But I was riding a motorcycle carousel, and I'm just happy as it can be.

But if you ask my mother how she felt in that time, I'm sure that my lostness had her grieved.

And she was all over that place.

And it was okay back then, I don't know what it means now, but my mother bought a leash and put it on me for the rest of that time that we were at that beach.

I think it was acceptable back then.

I don't know.

Kids don't know what we've been through.

I was thinking about that, and when we lived in Connorsville, Indiana, often we were reminded, and you can probably look this up sort of on dateline or one of those, but in the spring of 1986, there was a young woman by the name of Denise.

It was spring break, and she went out from her home.

She went out to a field to look for something that she had lost, never to return.

1986.

I met when we lived in Connorsville, I met her mother Judy.

And I'm gonna tell you, 20 years, 30 years later, she was never not devastated over her daughter's lostness.

I gotta think about that.

If any of you here, if any of our church family knew that a child was separated from their parent within the church, there's not one of you, I don't believe one of you wouldn't help a child get to that parent.

Not only not just help or give direction, but I believe every one of you would take the child by the hand if you knew where the parent was and get them to their parent.

That's how we feel about lostness, but I want to ask you this question: how many might we come across weekly who are desperately lost spiritually?

People without Jesus Christ.

For the gospel on the ground to take root, we have to have a personal connection with lostness.

John Newton put it forth in his renowned song in the easy line that says, Amazing grace.

It says, I once was lost, but now I'm found.

You see, the sower in that song casts seed, and the man that was lost was found.

The sower seeks the lost.

Point number two this morning is this there is one seed.

There is one sower, there is one seed.

Look at Mark 4, 14 and 15.

The sower sows the word.

And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown.

When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts.

Letter A is this the seed needs cultivation.

The seed is the word of God.

Pastor Dave alluded to this.

Many of you have farmed in some way or put out a garden and you've had to use this tiller, right?

Many of you have rented a tiller, you've used a tiller, right?

And it's sort of a disturbing process.

In fact, till if you look up the definition of a tiller, it is something that disturbs the soil.

Word of God ever done that to a person before.

Now it takes effort for you as a person with the word of God to then till.

Right?

We want everything to be simple and easy, and we go, well, if I do that, what if?

How will it be received?

And I want to tell you, there's nothing about tilling that's real easy.

There's nothing about tilling that's real simple.

There's nothing about it that's kind in that process.

I'm not saying we don't speak the word of God with kindness, but it takes effort to get to a person, to get through that first layer.

Hebrews 4 12 said it this way: that the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing asunder the thoughts and intents of the heart.

The Bible tills the soil of the heart.

Practically speaking, that means if we want to see fruit and people, then we have to till and talk about the Bible.

Talk about the Bible.

Cultivation is talking about the Bible.

If we want to be a heart tiller, then we have to talk about the Bible.

If we want to talk about the Bible, guess what?

We're probably going to have to till our own hearts with the Bible.

This thing's got to be filled up with something to empty out.

And I know this about everybody here.

I don't have to spend a whole lot of time with you, or anybody else had to spend a whole lot of time with you.

You talk about what you like.

It's just very natural.

If you sit long enough around somebody else or somebody new or somebody that you've done, you're going to begin to talk about the things that you like.

I don't have to spend three minutes in the lobby and hear about the sporting scores from this weekend.

I don't have to ask one person, but I know.

I know now.

I promise you, I didn't look, but now I know.

And it just took seconds.

We talk about what we like and what we love.

Is your heart itself being tilled with the word of God?

The psalmist said it this way.

He opened the book, the song goes like this.

But his delight was in the law of the Lord, and he did meditate upon it day and night.

And you know what it said about that?

If he meditated on it day and night, he said he would be like a tree planted by rivers of water.

That seed took root, and he was a flourishing fruitful tree because of what he loved.

It brings forth fruit in its season, it says we were tilled because we become product of the seed that was tilled in us, and then therefore we can become fruitful.

I want you to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 3.

1 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

So what do we do with this, Pastor?

1 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 5 through 9.

1 Corinthians 3:5–9

Who then is Paul and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one.

I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.

So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.

Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

For we are God's fellow workers, you are God's field, you are God's building.

It says, one plants, one waters, God gets the increase.

Verse 5, it says, What then is Apollos and Paul?

Well, what are they in this story?

They're not the honored guest at the table.

Paul and Apollos are servers.

The word for what they're doing here is table waiters.

In the analogy, they're not honored guests.

They're not the head of the table.

They're not the owner of the house.

They're not even the makers of the food.

They are table waiters.

I want to tell you, church, I am not an honored guest here today.

I'm the lead server.

So if you came into the restaurant today, I'd say hello.

My name is Rick.

Can I seat you at a table?

It would be my absolute pleasure to bring you a water.

I got thinking about that.

Heather and I used to work for Ryan's buffet.

Heather's got a sour look on her face just at me saying it.

She had a much cleaner job than me.

She was a hostess.

But if you came into Ryan's, I loved working at Ryan's.

We worked there while we were at Tennessee Temple.

And I'm telling you, I love nothing better.

I go right now to a restaurant because I like to come home with cash in hand.

That was always exciting to me.

You know, even in the bad nights where they put me, y'all just age me.

When they put me in the smoking section, right?

There was a smoking section in Ryan, which don't make no sense because if anybody smokes, everybody smoked.

So there I was, and I would have people come into Ryan's, and in Ryan's, it's a buffet.

And people are, some of you may be thinking right now, well, how does that work?

How does that work?

I know the world is full of tips now.

You can't go to the post office and not get asked, do you want a tip?

I mean, it's a tip everywhere.

But then all I did was bring drinks and some of them honey butter rolls.

That's all I did.

I didn't bring your food because you were there at the buffet.

But man, I was happy to bring drinks.

And I look forward to things like a softball party, you know, a group of many, many people.

And it and I wouldn't ask for help.

I'd be in there 25 drinks.

Okay, I'm getting drinks.

And look, I didn't want your drink to, I didn't want you to lose one-fourth of that glass.

And I'm back with my pitcher, just pouring whatever it was in your drink.

And I was happy to do it.

I was happy because I wanted to connect with you.

I wanted you to have a drink, and I wanted you to tip me good.

It was the purpose that I fill up that water.

Am I Purpose today, and any pastor who's standing at a pulpit today, and anyone giving you the word of God, the purpose was to let you know about the drink.

It is my honor.

And it's hard to believe many weeks to serve the water of the Word of God.

Jesus said to the woman at the well about it, I will give you a drink that you won't even have a clue about how to understand, because you'll never thirst again.

The water that I give will cause you to never thirst again.

The word of God is water in a dry and barren land.

It's incredibly freshing.

Listen to me, church, the Bible is the truth, and the truth is what sets men free.

And I wanted to tell you about this.

Results are not your concern or my concern.

It's not about the result.

We're not for the results.

It says some water, some plant, some water, some plant, some water, and some plant.

But God gets the increase.

So you continue to water.

And listen, don't get all beat up over yourself about that family member.

And you're like, man, I've said something 50 times.

You just keep watering, you keep loving, you keep planting, you keep watering, you keep seeding, you keep you keep on with it.

And God gets the increase.

You continue to sow.

Letter B is this the seed necessitates capabilities.

I want you to look over in that passage quickly in Mark, or I'm sorry, in John chapter 4.

John 4 · chapter mention

Verse 34 through 39.

As Jesus is describing to the hungry disciples, says, Jesus said to them, My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to finish his work.

Do you not say that there are still four months, and then comes the harvest?

Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest.

And he who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.

For this the saying is true, one sows and another reaps.

I sent you to reap for that which you have not labored.

Others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.

This is all about what the Word of God is capable of doing in a life.

And so we may have a conversation this week.

You may go into work and you go, I'm just nervous and tense about making these statements.

I'm nervous about praying with somebody.

I'm nervous, and I want to tell you, this seed has all the capability.

It's not about your ability, it's about what you have to bring.

Don't get worried and caught up on how you're gonna say or what you're gonna say.

Let me tell you about the seed and what the Bible says about itself.

In Psalms 119, it says it is a light.

In James 1, it talks about the word of God as a mirror.

In Jeremiah 23, it says it's a fire and it's a hammer.

In 1 Peter, it says it's food for the hungry.

In Deuteronomy, it says it's sweet morning dew.

In Ephesians and Hebrews, it says it is a sword.

Let me tell you about this word of God.

For 1,400 years, it was authored by 30 different people and sequenced together 1,189 chapters.

And all of these verses, it is God's written book that has cohesion from front to back.

And this book should fill your memory, and this book should rule your heart, and this book should be a guide to your feet.

This book is said it's been a mine of wealth, it's soul for the health, it's a river of pleasure, and it's water in the desert.

Do you love this book?

What do you do with this book?

It's been said we must pray it in, read it through, live it out, and pass it on.

Is this book a part of your daily life?

The Bible says of itself it's forever settled in heaven.

Church, they've tried to burn it, they've tried to banish it, they've tried to bury it, they've tried to belittle it, they've tried to brush it aside.

And for age to age and century over century, this book has been the all-time best seller.

It cannot be taken away.

I think about this book, and this is my favorite thing to think about.

I've got a lot of books on my shelf, and I love this book, and it's the only one that loves me back.

This book is the word of God.

This book has capabilities to penetrate the heart of people.

So sow this book and speak this book and share this book.

The seed has capabilities.

Point number three this morning is this.

We're gonna look at the two soils.

Look back there at Mark chapter four.

Are y'all hot out here?

I'm can I have somebody on this side and somebody on this side to come hit this AC?

Put it on 69, 7, something.

I'm I'm like, look, I know, I know we gotta have class in here, but I'm about ready to melt.

Return the message toward hell in a minute.

You got it?

Phew.

All right.

We're gonna see if that catches us up.

I don't know.

I got water up here, I don't know what you got.

Let's read.

Mark chapter 4.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

It says this they likewise are the ones sown on stony ground, who then they hear the word immediately receive it and with gladness, and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time.

Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble.

Now these are the ones sown among thorns.

They are the ones who hear the word and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire for other things entering in, choke the word, and becomes unfruitful.

But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, bear fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some hundred.

So this is what I want you to know this morning.

There is two types of soil.

I know we read four soils.

There is good soil and there is bad soil.

Letter A is this bad soil yields resistance.

I've got a picture of the soils that you're gonna see throughout.

And this first one is this hard ground, this wayward, it's called path.

And you can kind of see that path that's drawn out with the green grass around it.

That's a picture, a narrow path, but it's a path as you look at it that you would not go to and say, This is a prime path for planting my garden.

You would look at that path and you would say, This is a hardened path.

This ground is tough ground.

And in the idea of the heart, a hardened heart is a heart that yields resistance.

Unrepentance and pride cause a resistance.

The Phariseal type of people are people that are sort of self-righteous, but in their hearts they're hardened because of a decision.

Hardened heart is a decision to go the wrong direction.

Hard-heartedness paralyzes someone for moving forward.

Hard-heartedness are people that don't have peace.

They're not at rest.

And the sowers still sow seeds.

Sowers sow seeds and they land, but the hard-hearted heart, it says that the seeds just fall to the wayside.

You may be here, and this may be your 10,000 church service.

And you can be in your 10,000 church service and have a pathway to your heart that looks like that hard heart.

It's been cast and it's been cast and it's been around you, been around you since you're a baby.

You can say, I grew up in the Bible Belt, I got a grandmother who taught Sunday school.

I've been all around the word.

And the word can be all around you, but if it has not penetrated this heart, then it's a whole lot like that wayward path.

You can hear the word, you can be around the word.

You can even become emotional about the word.

We're gonna talk about that in a moment.

But little opportunity to penetrate.

Just imagine putting new grass seed on that ground and hoping for the best.

Right?

Would you do that?

Would you say, oh, I'm gonna fill this in?

I can't wait.

No, not on hard heart, hard ground.

Has to be tilled up.

There's little opportunity for something to take root in that hard heartedness.

So I want to tell you today, and we prayed through it in the Lord's Supper.

If there's roots of bitterness and anger, if there's things unsettled, man, wouldn't today be the day?

Begin that journey.

I'm not saying it's gonna happen right now, but it can happen because you make a decision, and that's really what it is: the will to decide something different.

Well, that was the first ground, that hard ground, wayward ground.

The second ground is stony ground.

Stony ground at first professes yet never possesses.

They profess, oh yes, I'm a Christian.

Oh yes, I received that one time.

This to me is maybe the most dangerous of the grounds of the soils.

Because you can show up here, and I've heard an evangelist say this.

Grew up in church, was in a church his whole life.

He said, I grew up in it, I heard it.

I was in church all the time in church, but my heart was a million miles away from God.

How does that happen?

He said he prayed a prayer.

You can do the work, you can come in here and you can play a part.

And the Bible says this scary verse.

The scary verse says people will say that I worked in Jesus' name, and one day the Father may look at them and say, Depart from me, I never knew you.

That's scary soil.

How did that soil come to?

Because of no rooting.

And what it shares here, the adversity that comes, it looks like this in a person.

We we're not the judge of a heart, but this is what it gives us to look at.

It says, When adversity came, they fell away immediately.

They were out of love just as soon as they were in love.

Somebody over here said, Come, get excited about this thing, believe in it.

And they were believed and they were excited, and just as soon they were immediately out of it, because someone over here said, Don't believe, don't get excited, and they were done.

They took religion hot from the oven and dropped it on the floor.

And before it had a chance to feed on, it was cold.

That happens in church after church after church.

There's people that come and it's stony ground.

Stony ground.

Like a chaff in the wind, the Bible explains.

I grew up with a gravel driveway.

Anyone have a gravel driveway?

This was not that exciting as a kid.

A gravel driveway was mediocre.

I couldn't ride a bike in a drive gravel driveway very well.

I learned to run outside without my shoes, and after nine years of living, I succumbed to it.

I probably have hard feet now, but it wasn't that exciting.

Try to play basketball or kickball on gravel?

Like, man, don't know where the ball's gonna go.

Watch these moves.

Oh my.

Right?

That gravel driveway was mediocre.

It's not dirt.

Dirt would have been fine.

It's not asphalt.

Asphalt would have been great.

Couldn't do things that I wanted to do.

Stoning ground is hard to clean.

I remember being so excited when my dad told me we were getting asphalt, y'all.

I was like, this is Christmas.

It's gonna be so awesome.

Right?

We're getting asphalt, everybody.

Woo! Who's pumped?

Stony ground.

They might even agree with it in word.

That's stony heart.

In word, yes, I agree.

But why is it so easy for them to fade away?

We see that all the time.

People are here and then they vanish.

People are here two weeks, three weeks.

They get on sort of a spiritual burst and then gone.

Why does that type of thing happen time after time?

He saw what Jesus did.

But there has to be more than seeing.

There has to come to a point of surrendering.

The demons, the Bible says, believe.

They believe that Jesus exists.

Let me tell you about salvation in that realm.

So I want to break this down.

This is soteriology.

Okay, salvation includes three parts.

Now you can have an emotional response without a pathway change.

You can come to an altar today, you can pray, you can feel sorry for your sins, and you can get up and leave and go right back to that same life.

You say, I did believe, and I did pray a prayer, but if there is no pathway change, that's probably, I'm not to judge, a stony heart.

You can have intellect and say, I believe I'm Bible Bell in the South.

I believe in Jesus, guns, and football.

We believe, Pastor.

You can believe in it, and the demons believe.

And you can even have an emotional response to your sins.

Man, I did do that.

And I am sorry for that.

You want, let me tell you, there's a line there that's coming, right?

Moral people who are not Christian people feel bad when they do something that hurts people.

That's morality.

Okay?

The line that's different, emotional response for my sin.

I have intellect, I may or may not have emotion, but if I do not have surrender, then I may have a stony heart.

Salvation is intellect, emotion, and will.

If you have never had, listen to me, church, this is the scariest soil to me.

If you've never had a 2 Corinthians 5.17 experience, that means if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.

If any man is in Christ, he is both understanding of who Jesus was, accepts and believes who he was, he has a response to his sin and a change.

If I've not surrendered, 2 Corinthians 5 says, if I've not been made new, if I've never been made different, I, I'm not saying you, I would be scared.

I would be scared of that situation.

I would not want to go before my father, which is in heaven, in that situation.

I'd not be certain.

That's why I say often when I lead at the end over salvation, I will say something like, This prayer is not what's saving you.

You hear me?

A lot of people growing up went through that.

And people, we've gone through generations that come to vacation Bible school.

Kids, you want a ticket to heaven?

Yes, come pray a prayer.

Hear me.

We are not that here.

Okay, that does not happen here.

And what I'm trying to tell you is it's not, listen, a prayer, I say this, the prayer may be cementing it, but what the Holy Spirit is doing to that heart.

And here, you're the judge.

I'm not the judge.

If you've gotten to that part, if you've had emotion, if you've been repentant of sin, and then there's a change, you know that.

God knows that.

Probably your spouse knows that.

But all of us can sit here and you can look like you look and us not know it.

I'm not the judge of that.

But I would not be certain if I did not have a pathway change.

Okay?

Has my path been changed?

I'm not trying to scare you out of your salvation.

I'm just saying 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, if any man's in Christ, he is new.

Have you been made new?

Well, we got that soil picture of the thorny ground.

A man who again professes to receive the word, but whose heart is full of so many other things.

There's some people here who prayed a prayer.

But your life has been choked out.

The world has got you by the throat, and you feel like you're barely breathing.

I say this all the time.

Here are the three P's of the world power, possessions, and the other P.

Somebody help me.

Pleasure.

I got it.

Say it all the time and forgot it.

We can't understand why all that we have and all that we do aren't making us happy.

It's suffocating a person.

These things of life that the world says you have to have it, and they're being strangled by it.

Anyone here ever got caught in thorns?

Thorns is interesting.

It hurts on the way in and the way out.

Thorns.

The Bible says in Galatians 6, 7 through 9 that it is impossible to sow to the flesh and reap of the spirit.

We're sowers, right?

It's impossible to be sowing to this flesh.

Those three peas, if we're sowing for all of these things in this world and getting to, it's impossible to simultaneously be sowing to the spirit.

And so what are we living for?

What are we living in?

The Bible gives an example of the rich man who sits with Jesus and they have this conversation and he says, I've done all that.

I've done all that, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good.

I check all the boxes, and he says, Well, sell all your stuff.

And he says, right?

There's another rich man that says, I'm just gonna knock down my barns and build another bigger barn so I can have more stuff.

He says, The things of this world are choking you out.

You're being thorned around you.

I hate thorns.

When man sinned in Genesis, you know what God cursed the ground with?

Thorns.

Thorns and thistles.

You ever pricked your finger?

Every time I prick my finger, I'm reminded of what happened in Genesis.

Every ugly thorn brush, have you ever passed it?

Has anyone passed by a thornbrush before?

Wow, look at those thorn bushes.

We should get some at home.

They're hideous everywhere you go, they're always hideous.

It's a reminder constantly of our fall.

I hate thorns.

Every beautiful rose that you've picked up that's then turned to blood in your finger.

It's a reminder of the beauty and the capability and then the sin.

The hideous blotch on God's masterpiece.

I hate thorns.

Think about the thorns of Eden that became the mocking piece of our Savior.

The mocking crown of Jesus.

Do you think in that moment Jesus ever thought with that force down on his head and blood coming down and trickling down his face?

Do you ever think in that moment Jesus thought, I hate thorns?

I think he hated that crown.

I think he might have thought these thorns choke out the people that could be seeing me, but it's veiling them, it's blocking them from actually seeing me.

And all this stuff in the world is keeping them from seeing what's real and what I can give them and real love and real truth.

I hate thorns.

Well, letter B.

Good soil.

That was all bad soil.

Good soil yields a reproduction.

I want you to look at Romans for a moment.

Romans chapter one.

13 through 15.

I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you, but was hindered until now.

That I might, listen to this, have some fruit among you, also just as much as among the other Gentiles.

I am debtor both to Greek and barbarians, both wise and unwise.

So what as much as is in me, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.

Paul says this I desire to have fruit among you.

What is the fruit of good soil?

He says it's winning souls to Christ.

I desire to preach the gospel to those who will hear the gospel.

Romans 6 22 says, But now having been set free from sin, become slaves of God, having the fruit.

Of holiness.

Do you want to know if God is at work in you?

Do you have a fruit of holy?

Do you have a fruit of growth?

Are you growing?

Are you becoming more and more godly in your walk in your life?

Galatians 5, 22 and 23, you know this.

That this is the measurement of good soil in your life.

The fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace and long-suffering and kindness and gentleness and goodness and self-control.

Is that fruit of the tree of your life?

Are you good soil reproducing fruit?

Hebrews 13, 15 says this about fruit.

Let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God that is the fruit of our lips.

When we thank God, when we praise God, it is the fruit of good soil.

When we want to thank and praise God, when we praise Him through worship and song, it's the fruit of good soil.

If you want to know, church, and I if I meet with somebody who's having spiritual doubts, I'll bring them to this verse and I'll say, Listen, I'm not the temperature gauge.

You're the temperature gauge of you.

Have you had that path change?

But let her be, the Bible says, by their fruit you shall know them.

Is there fruit in your life that you can measure looking at this and go, that's a part of my life?

I'm all in.

I have had a path change and I'm living for him, and this fruit is a part of my life.

Do you want to praise him?

This I'm not saying just in worship.

Do you find it within yourself to praise God?

That's good soil.

Are you trying to grow?

That's good soil.

Do you want to win souls?

These are all things we read.

That's good soil.

Fruit comes from good soil.

So I have to ask you, church, are you sharing fruit?

Are you sharing fruit with people?

Are you sharing the word of God?

Think about your day-to-day, your week to week.

Is there a purposeful, intentional opportunity for you?

Think about the people that you're around.

You're the only person around those people.

Are you looking to intentionally share the seed of the Word of God?

Well, listen, it's hard to share anything new if I'm not doing it new.

But if I get in this, well, I wanted to share with you quick just a quick opportunity.

Heather and I went, and David Amanda, the front of the week, we on the back end of the week, we went on this pastor's and pastors' wives retreat, and we were reminded in a couple of weeks.

So we've been doing this gospel on the ground week after week in the church since the beginning of the year.

And I thought, let's take the opportunity.

Let's put our money where our mouth is as a church.

So I think we've got a slide, but 316, March 16th this year, is a Sunday.

And I'm gonna I've never preached before from John 3.16 and 7.

It's weird.

I'm like, this is the greatest passage in history, and I don't have a message.

So 316, we're gonna have right here at church, and this is what I want you to do.

Will you be an inviter?

Church, if every person here would invite three people, there's 300 people here, there's 900 possible contacts.

What might happen if you will till into somebody?

You got two weeks.

If we'll till I'm I've got two weeks, you've got two weeks.

I'm gonna invite.

Will you invite somebody?

This is like preemptive for Easter, right?

Easter's coming.

We all got somebody that's gonna come, you know, that'll come out of the woodwork for Easter.

But what about 316?

Will you invite somebody to hear the word of God, the gospel afresh?

I hope that you will.

It's an opportunity to see fruit reproduced.

I wanted to share in closing this story.

I came back across it this week.

There's a man who was a gardener at a large estate, and he was holding a visitor there at this estate and in fact a castle, and he was responsible for keeping the grounds well groomed and pristine, and did so.

The man that came to visit had lunch with the gardener and his wife, and as he sat there, he commended the gardener, saying, I've never seen a place more beautifully kept than this.

He said, It the gardens here are magnificent, the flowers, the wonderful care you've taken to this property is really quite amazing.

And he said to him, By the way, when was the last time that the owner was here?

And the gardener said something pretty surprising to that visitor.

He said, Oh, it's been over ten years since he's been here.

And the visitor said, What are you saying?

Ten years?

Why in the world do you keep this place so immaculate?

Why are you keeping this place in this manner when he has been gone for so long?

And the man interjected, because I'm expecting him to return.

The gardener said, or the visitor said, Is he coming next week?

He said, I don't know when he's coming, but I'm expecting him today.

I want him to find his place full of beauty.

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