Seeing Jesus: Parable of the Sower - Part 2

I was just talking to Brian. He was asking me, because I've asked you all to

pray about the discussions with the various tenants in the new building.

And, you know, we are trying to just make room for us to go ahead and move in

in November to our new building.

And if all that's new to you, we are moving from this location to downtown Snoqualmie in early November.

And so we're just trying to get this new building that we've purchased prepared

to make room for us. And so, yeah, I've been having tenant discussions this week.

Most have gone really well. So I've been encouraged by that.

I have one more on Wednesday at 10 a.m. So if you could pray for that one.

And that will give us a good sense of where people are at.

And I'm, yeah, it's looking encouraging to me that we should be able to get things moving.

And then, you know, go on to a remodel.

We're going to plan on doing a remodel in October. And I've also asked you to

just pray. We're trying to get, of course, real estate is, it's loads of laughs.

And so I've been having loads of laughs this week, trying to get someone to

replace the HVAC unit that has gone out in the new building.

And we sort of knew it would be a problem. And here we are.

So, yeah, just praying to get people, contractors in order that would really appreciate that.

Yeah, so things have been good. I'm excited about that. And also,

another big thing that's happening is Erin Coder is starting tomorrow.

There she's, oh, all right, yeah.

She's looking around. Yeah, no, yeah, you definitely. So really excited to have

Erin on the team and working on our communications internally, externally.

I think she's going to do a great job. So keep that in prayer.

Keep her in prayer. She has to work with me, as Michael said,

the worst part of the job.

But, you know, I think I think she will. We talked about perseverance last week,

so she's going to demonstrate.

So anyways, we are making our way through the book of Matthew.

So if you want to go up and open up your Bibles to Matthew 13,

which is where we've been at, and we've been looking at Matthew 13,

and we've been discussing this, like Matthew 13 is just all parables. It is parables of Jesus.

Little stories that are meant to illustrate and teach.

Little word pictures, which I think is easy for us, and I've said this a couple

times, it's easy for us to not think that the parables are nice stories, right?

We think that parables are, well, okay, well, that's good to know.

But to Jesus, I mean, these were one of his primary teaching tools.

Certainly one of the things that made his teaching ministry extremely compelling

was that he taught in these parables and that these parables really matter.

He said in Matthew 13, 11, that these parables reveal the secrets of the kingdom

of heaven, that they are to us pictures and illustrations of what it's like

in the kingdom of heaven.

So our goal as we go in and we read these parables is not to just say,

oh, okay, well, that's a nice story.

Our goal here is to pay attention and let Jesus's teaching, which we can normally just kind of ignore.

Just let it take its appropriate place of importance and to kind of let it get

into our hearts and into our minds and let it do its work.

So we're like just going through and we're talking through these parables.

I'm asking you to think about them, to ponder them, to be pondering a week ahead.

That's been my assignment for you.

So next week, we're going to be looking at the next parable,

which will be picking up in verse 24.

So go ahead and read, starting in verse 24 for this week, and just ponder it. Think about it.

Think about what Jesus is trying to say, and then we'll talk about it as we

gather next week, not next week, the week after next, because next week,

we're going to be at Church in the Park.

Don't forget, like I did. Okay.

So all that is to say, I think it is appropriate for us to have high expectations

of Jesus' parable because he says that they matter.

He says that they reveal important things to us. So let's raise our hopes.

It's not something you normally want to do when you're about to give a sermon,

but let's raise our hopes together because God is going to speak to us.

And let's read through this parable again.

So Jesus gives the parable in the beginning of Matthew 13, verse 3,

Matthew 13:3

and that's what we're going to read, and then he explains the parable.

We'll go through his explanation.

So just reading the parable again so that we hear it together.

So picking up Matthew 13, 3 through 9.

Then he told them many things in parables, saying, Consider the sower who went out to sow.

As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.

Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it didn't have much soil,

and it grew up quickly since the soil wasn't deep.

But when the sun came up, it was scorched. And since it had no root, it withered away.

Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it.

And still other seed fell on good ground and produced fruit,

some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirty times what was sown.

Let anyone who has ears listen.

So we began working through this parable and thinking through it,

talking through it. And we got about halfway through last week.

And I want us to pick up again where we left off. But before we do,

I just want to quickly remind you of some things, and we talked about these

and explained them in greater depth last week.

But the first thing we need to know is this, is that this is the parable of the sower.

It's not, and it's funny because my wife pointed out to me afterwards,

well, some people call it the parable of the soils.

And I think some Bibles sometimes even have that in the pericope,

but literally Jesus says, this is the parable of the sower.

Like that's what he says in his explanation.

And even here, as we, as we pick up in, in verse 19, oh no, I was getting ahead

of myself. Sorry. I didn't mean to do that.

It's, it's the parable of the sower. I mean, Jesus says here,

he says, as he, as he sets off in his parable, he says, consider the sower,

not consider the soils, but consider the sower.

Now that is like pretty nuanced. And I understand you might think, well, who cares?

Like it's the sower and the soils, like it's both the focus in here.

But I think it is really important for us to, to, to consider that what Jesus

wants us to do as we, we set out to understand some, some mysteries of the kingdom

of heaven is to get our eyes on the main character,

there are, there are, you know, the soils are a part of this,

but the main character is the sower.

And the sower is doing this thing. Like we talked about last week,

they are, they are literally broadcasting seed, right?

And that, that word works like we have a modern sense of what broadcasting is, right?

And then we have the original sense of what broadcasting is,

which is casting broad seed, right?

So, so you, you, You want to go ahead and plant a field. You do that just like

fill it up with seeds, spread it everywhere.

You're not really doing a lot of thinking about where it's going to land.

You're just going to throw it all over the place because you're because you're

confident that eventually some is going to land and it's going to do it's going

to grow wherever it lands.

And it's interesting. I mean, that, yeah, that broadcasting idea,

like we think about broadcasting, what happens like I think that comes from

from radio days back when the radio is being invented and that you have a single

point of origin where a signal is going out, a radio tower.

Right. And it's not just being beamed to one radio, your radio,

but it's being beamed everywhere.

And some radios are tuning in to hear it. But the message is being spread all

over the place. Some people are listening.

Some people are bothering to tune into the frequency, right?

But the message is everywhere.

Even still today, I mean, we still have a few broadcast radios left,

right? And we can do this. But this is the nature.

Like Jesus is saying, if we want to understand the parable, like what happens

to this seed once it's sown, like we have to understand the sower before anything

else. and he's just one who is spreading the message far and wide.

He's not being stingy about it.

He's not so much concerned that he might waste some seed.

In fact, he's doing this work, broadcasting the message confident that many

people will not hear and will not understand.

I mean, this is the whole context of this parable discussion and saying some

people are going to hear this message of the kingdom, then it's going to go

right over their heads, right?

And maybe you've been at a point in your life where this whole Jesus thing and

the gospel just makes no sense to me, but then other times in your life,

things landed, and you were able to understand it, right?

And all that is to say, isn't it great that Jesus is broadcasting and that he's not stingy?

This picture of the sower is more than anything. It's a picture of grace and faithfulness.

They say that the average person before they come to believe in the gospel hears

it seven times. They heard it presented seven times clearly until they actually

come to believe and understand.

And man, imagine if you just had one chance at it. How few would hear.

But we have this message. It is the sower. He's broadcasting.

He's constantly going out. And yes, at times in our lives, it doesn't bear the fruit it ought.

But God is faithful, and he comes back, and we hear over and over and over again,

he is going to do his work, he's going to continue going on.

So understand that this is a parable about the sower.

In the parable, we're going to keep going, he continues on, like we talked about

the soils, and we see what happens to the seed that is spread in each place,

and we're shown four different results of this sowing, right?

Four different scenarios, four different things that happened.

And I didn't lay it out like this last week, but as I was thinking about it,

I think this is a kind of helpful way to illustrate what's going on.

And it's that we see, first we see a non-start, and then we see a false start,

and then we see a challenged start.

And then Jesus illustrates what a good start looks like in terms of soil receiving seed and growing.

So we have a non-start, a false start, a challenged start, and a good start.

And last week we talked about the non-start. Again, didn't use that language,

but this is what it was. And we read about that in Matthew 13, verse 19.

Matthew 13:19

Jesus says, explaining the parable, he says, when anyone hears the word about

the kingdom and doesn't understand it, the evil one comes, snatches it away,

away what was sown in his heart.

And this one, and this is the one sown along the path. So he's explaining his parable.

This idea that he's communicating as the seed is spread along the path,

what happens is that the evil one, Satan, our enemy, comes and he just snatches

away that message. It doesn't take root. It doesn't do anything.

Before it even begins to do what it's sent out to do, it gets gobbled up.

And we talked about that last week.

And then the second scenario is this kind of false start.

Jesus looks at this false start and he describes it this way.

He says, the one set on rocky ground, this is the false start.

This is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy,

but he has no root and is short-lived.

And when distress or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away.

And so here we start to see this picture of what happens.

There's a false start in the harvest that Jesus is trying to bring about as

he's spreading his word, and that is that the seed takes root in this soil,

but it is rocky soil, and because of all the rocks and because of all the difficulty,

the root can't grow down.

And so when conditions change, when the sun comes up like we've been experiencing,

like we see what happens to the grass when the sun comes up,

and it can't get down to a water source, it can't get down to nutrients,

it dies, right?

And so that's what happens. there's a

challenging conditions and so the sun scorches

and the wind blows and the roots aren't deep enough

and so the plant ends up not thriving it dies but of course we all know that

there's not only one chance to grow something it's a good reminder for us even

sometimes in the midst of rocky soil we can make rocky soil fruitful if we continue

to have at it and we continue to work with it.

I was talking to Ben. Ben just got an orchid and he's confident he's going to

give it his best to keep it alive.

That's great. And maybe one day he'll actually be able to sustain the life of

an orchid. That's great.

I know I could not, but that is not like his only chance at it.

That's what I'm trying to say. So we've got that.

Unrootedness. And we talked a little bit about that last week.

And the fact that when persecution and difficulty comes, like we don't maintain our faith.

And this is something that happens to all of us.

Don't act like it hasn't happened to you because it has. And yet that is not

the end of the story. That is not the end of the story. That's the point.

So picking up here, right? I'm going to go deep into this third condition,

this third condition of the seed.

And that's what I'm calling a challenged start.

And I think for us, just from what I know of the people in this room,

I think this is probably the most relevant for the most of us because a lot

of people who come to the church have been walking with Jesus for a long time.

You've gone past the challenges and through the difficulties.

And some of you guys have gone through tragedy and you've persevered,

you know, and you're continuing to walk with Jesus.

And I'm not saying, oh, you're doing perfectly and you're doing great,

but you're continuing on, right?

But you're seeing that there's challenge in your life.

And this is me too, by the way. There's a lot of challenge in my life in these same areas.

What Jesus describes here is that there's a seed that's implanted in soil.

And here's what I want you to really know. It's good soil.

This isn't bad soil. This is good soil.

There's nothing wrong with this soil. It's soil where something can grow.

The problem is there's something else already growing there.

There's thorns already growing there. There's a weed already growing there.

There's something that isn't going to be fruitful and productive in the way

that God wants it to have going in there.

I think the illustration is fairly clear. This is preoccupied soil.

It is soil that already has something growing in it.

In verse 22, Jesus explains, he says, the one sown among the thorns,

this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the deceitfulness

of wealth choke the word and it becomes unfruitful.

What Jesus tells us about this challenge start is that the thorns,

which he identifies specifically as the worries of this age and the deceitfulness of wealth,

are able to choke out the seed of the word, like the thing that is meant to

grow in the soil that Jesus intends to grow in that place is choked out because

there's other things already at work there.

So how does that work? What does that look like in my heart?

Because we're talking about matters of the heart. You know, we're talking about

what do I do with Jesus and what does it look like to believe in and follow

after Jesus and what are the things that I'm concerned with?

Well, I think we need to understand something we talked about last week.

Again, I'll do it very briefly.

I think we need to understand what the word is, what the seed is that's being spread.

And in verse 19, Jesus says that the seed is the word about the kingdom.

It's interesting that what we believe as Christians is something about Jesus and his kingdom.

The declaration of faith of Christians is Jesus is Lord.

He's king. He has bought my soul at a price.

He's come and been a sacrifice. And so now I can follow him.

And that is a safe thing for me to do. So Jesus tells us that the word that's

being sent is this word about his kingdom, this seed which God intends to see

implanted and grow and to bear fruit is a message about the kingdom of God.

It's the message that Jesus went around preaching, right? Matthew 4, 17.

Since we've been going through Matthew, we've been very familiar with this verse.

I bring it up a lot because it is the heart of Jesus' message. Matthew 4, 17.

From then on, Jesus began to preach, and this is what he preached.

Repent because the kingdom of heaven has come near. It's like the substance,

the summary of Jesus's message.

Repent because the kingdom of heaven has come near. It's what John the Baptist said before him.

What Jesus taught is that, think about it in the contexts of ancient Israel and ancient Rome.

Jesus went around in the midst of Israel, which was a Roman colony,

and declared in the Roman Empire and two Romans and two people obsessed with

the Roman system and all of its decadence and all of its violence and all of its enforced peace,

he went around in that place and he declared that the kingdom of heaven has

come near. And kingdom means kingdom.

So Rome was a kingdom. It had an emperor. It was an empire.

And so to declare that another kingdom has come was a provocative statement.

But he goes around saying it. It's here.

It's now because of me and because of what I'm doing.

And even in the midst of Israel, right, who were most religious people in Israel

were not happy Roman citizens.

In fact, they were very resentful. And in fact, their identity was tied up in resisting Rome.

They were a colony that would not assimilate. And it was a big problem for Rome.

They held on to their pride and their strong sense of moral superiority over and against Rome.

And they said, this is who we are. And we don't need to submit to Rome.

And we're God's people. And in the middle of all that, the conflict both between

Rome and between Israel, Jesus says, forget all that.

The kingdom is here now in your midst because of me, because I am here.

I've drawn near. And it was unexpected by the busy and religious and powerful

people of his day, people who thought it was up to them to build the kingdom,

either in the Roman way or in the Israelite way.

They thought it rested on their shoulders, but Jesus' message that,

no, I'm here now and the kingdom has come near, and that's going to mean a lot

for you, that was his message.

And Jesus says, since that's happened, the only logical response is repentance,

which doesn't mean just, oh, just do something differently.

It actually means to have a new mind. That word in the Greek is metanoiate,

which means to change one's mind.

Which of course, when I change my mind, I change my actions.

To have a mind that takes into account what God is doing now as he's bringing his kingdom near.

This is what Jesus's message was. He says, it's here, it's happening now,

and so repent. Act differently.

Consider what it means that I am among you as a king. And so.

Consider what that message does in the middle of your life or my life or in

the life of a Roman Jew in the first century.

It changes things because it reorients us and it tells us that the story that

we think we're in is not the story that is actually going on.

You think you're in the midst of a struggle between Israel and Rome or Rome

and the barbarians or whatever the big picture that these people think they're a part of.

Jesus says, no, that's not the story that's playing out.

There's another story and it has to do with the kingdom of God coming now and

it's tied up in me and in what I'm calling you to be.

Philosopher Alasdair McIntyre says this, I can only answer the question,

what am I to do if I can answer the prior question of what story do I find myself a part?

What we believe, like the overriding story of our life, it really is, it matters so much.

And I think what Jesus is calling out here in the parable of the sowers is the

challenge that we all have different stories that we think we're a part of.

We tell ourselves and we dwell on and we participate in different definitional

ideas of what it means to be a person and what it means to be happy and what

it means to be successful.

And what Jesus says is, because the kingdom of heaven has come near,

all those other stories actually need to be pushed to the side because something

truer and more fundamental is here.

You and I are a part of a story. It's actually the story of the parable of the sower.

We are receiving a message being broadcast from heaven by Jesus himself.

Sent and authenticated by his life, death, and resurrection.

That is going out and is being reinforced by the work of the Holy Spirit still in the world today.

We are receiving a message that through Jesus, men and women,

people just like us, can be forgiven, adopted, and reconciled to God.

That we can be restored into our creative purpose and that our lives can be

a place of interaction with God.

Where we can receive from him and then we

could take his good news and his grace and

his gospel and let it come into our hearts and it changes us and then we become

people who are going around spreading that good news and demonstrating the love

that we've seen in him and it's just coming out of our lives in a way that is

fruitful as Jesus describes on and we'll get there in a minute as he describes, like the good start.

But we are in a new story and that new story can't grow and can't be fruitful

and cannot do what it intends to do when it tries to grow along the old stories,

like the gospel message,

the nearness of the kingdom, the person of Jesus, like it has to get us to repent

of our participation and our getting tied up into these other things that we

think are so important and so valuable.

The cares of the world, the worries of the world, and the love of wealth,

the love of success, the love of being number one to the point where that becomes

our driving force in life.

We have a new story, one where I need to believe that it's God who actually

is the one who cares for my life, and it's my success doesn't depend entirely

on me, but it depends entirely on him.

And so I can just respond to him and receive his word.

We have a new kind of story where I can really believe that I am most strong

and I am most secure when I am most trusting in him to provide for me.

It's a different kind of story.

And it's one that is difficult to hold on to because everything around us is

reinforcing a different story.

It's telling us that we need to be handsome and smart and wealthy and on top

of it and anticipating everything that's going around and having the right opinions

and being thought of well by all the right people.

And when we do that, then we'll be successful.

But the gospel of the kingdom is this simple message. Jesus has come.

He adopts us in. He cares for us. And so we don't have to live in the story

anymore of just caring for ourselves.

I mean, Jesus knew that the gospel story uproots the story of worry and anxiety in our life.

I mean, remember back in Matthew 6, when we were going through the Sermon on

the Mount, Jesus talks about worry. He says this.

And I just like, again, like we can move past this stuff, but I want to slow

down and read this because his words are so powerful.

He says, can any of you add a moment to his lifespan by worrying? Yes.

So if we're worried about our life and our health and all this stuff,

is worry going to change anything?

And why do you worry about your clothes?

Observe how the wildflowers of the field grow. They don't labor or spin thread.

And yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all of his splendor was adored like one of these.

And if that's how God clothes the grass to the field, which is here today and

thrown in the furnace tomorrow, won't he do much more for you?

You of little faith. So don't worry saying, what will we eat and what will we

drink and what will we wear?

For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things and your heavenly father knows that you'd need them.

So what's Jesus doing? He's saying, you're caught up in this narrative in your

head that I need to fixate on my needs.

And so I need to provide for myself and I need to do all the things to stay

ahead and to secure my food and my drink and my clothing and my home and my

wealth and all these things.

And Jesus says his counteracting that message is to tell a truer message revealed

by him and his presence in his life.

And that's that your father knows your needs.

So if you are bearing the weight of managing your own life and providing for

your own self, Jesus' message is,

hear a truer story and think about this and understand that you are a child

of God and he cares for you.

Jesus confronts worry with the truer story that your heavenly father knows your

needs and that the kingdom of heaven is near.

He's not distant. He's not vacant. He's not absent.

God cares for us.

And that's the truth of things that Jesus reveals. And he says,

and so you don't have to be caught up in this fixation on worry.

You need to instead repent, which is not, again, like have a change of mind.

And have clarity that you have a God who knows your needs and he cares for you.

And likewise, Jesus identifies the deceitfulness of wealth as kind of like a

false message, a false gospel that chokes out the message of the kingdom.

I was at Starbucks and I was eavesdropping.

I'll do it again tomorrow. That's why I go there.

No, not really. But yeah, I mean, like Starbucks is a great place because you

get people, all kinds of people doing all kinds of things and talking about people.

It's a good way to get some insight into what people are thinking about.

And I was listening to two young guys.

They were probably like 28, you know, like young.

Not super young, but young. And they were just like chatting and they started

talking about money. and one of them said, money definitely can't buy you happiness.

And I thought, yeah, that's right. And then he went on and said this.

But the experiences that money can buy and the security of knowing that you

can take care of yourself, that will bring you peace.

And that's the deceitfulness of wealth.

Like, I mean, honestly, like there's some truth to it.

Like, like we can like, like, and I think honestly, this is the messaging of

the world is, well, if we have the most epic experiences and we have enough

so that like nobody could burst our bubble at any point, then we'll be okay.

But I mean, Jesus over and over again, he, he talks about that and he says,

it's not, it's not true because like, there will never be enough.

That we'll never have enough.

Like that is putting us down a path where we will have just an unsatisfiable thirst for more.

And the story that a person who believes that, that what they really need to

do is to secure their own destiny is someone who will always have the weight

of the world on their shoulders.

And if the economy turns down and if, you know, God forbid your health fails you And if, I don't know,

like any number of scenarios, some kind of disaster strikes in your life and

it affects you economically, then your security will go along with it.

But what Jesus is saying is that we should not be deceived by wealth.

And so we should put our hope in things that will last and in the faithfulness

of God, in the nearness of the kingdom and entrusting with him in all things.

And when it comes to that particular lie, like the particular deceitfulness

of wealth, Jesus calls it out, and it's a really common theme in Scripture.

I want to draw your attention to 1 Timothy 6.6.

Paul is writing to Timothy, and he's just trying to give Timothy a sense of,

well, what do you do with money?

What place does that have in your life? And he says this, Godliness with contentment

is great gain That's a financial word, gain there.

Righteousness, trusting in God, being content, that is great wealth.

For we brought nothing into the world and we can take nothing out.

And if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.

But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish

and harmful desires which plunge people into ruin and destruction.

For the love of money is the root of all evil.

And by craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Those are some really clear and direct words, a warning from Paul, right?

About what could happen if we let this lie about money grow up into our lives.

If we let that seed get into the soil of our hearts and let it take root,

like what is going to happen?

Many will have fallen away from the faith as a result.

And I think this is what Jesus is talking about, when the seed is sown among the thorns.

But the alternative, I think actually Paul goes on to explain to Timothy.

I have another slide there of the next couple verses, and I really want to focus

on the end of this little section here, okay?

So he says, godliness with contentment is great gain.

Don't fall into this trap. Many are carried away by love of money,

but he says this, But you, man of God,

flee from these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith,

love, endurance, and gentleness. These are the...

Consistent with another kind of story. Fight the good fight of faith.

Take hold of eternal life, which you were called, to which you were called and

about which you have made a good confession in the presence of many witnesses,

in the presence of God who gives all to all and to Christ Jesus,

who gave a good confession before Pontius Pilate.

I charge you to keep this command without fault and failure until the appearing of our Lord Jesus.

And this is where I want us to focus on, Because here's Paul's other bigger

story, which will supplant the story of providing for yourself and love of money.

He says, God will bring this about in his own time.

He is the blessed and only sovereign,

the King of kings, the Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in

unapproachable light, whom no one has seen and can see, and to him be honor and eternal power.

See Paul understands that it is a

very normal thing for us to be concerned about money and of course we all are

I mean we we live in a in a culture that is obsessed with having enough to retire

from the age of 20 we are getting kids worried about about what's going to happen

when you're 65 and I'm not actually saying that's a bad thing which probably is a wise thing to to.

Save for our future, but it can cause us so much anxiety to have the weight

of the world, of the financial world on our shoulders.

I think men in particular, and men don't talk ever, so we don't talk about this,

but I think many men in particular bear the weight of, and I'm not saying women

aren't, gosh, am I stepping in?

Okay, thank you. Thank you. It's okay. Thank you, Emily. Thank you.

Appreciate that. Yes. I'm not trying to make some big point here, right?

But I know that a lot of men in particular feel like if they mess up at their

jobs and if something goes wrong, how much of a failure will you feel?

How much will you feel totally incapable because you can't provide?

And in this environment where things are so expensive, the weight of that is

always hanging over you, right?

And so that message of anxiety and worry And, oh, I got to have enough so that

just in case whatever happens, like that's always on you.

And it becomes a fixation and you become preoccupied with that worry above seeking

first the kingdom of God, which is what Jesus tells us to do in the midst of worrying.

Because all of these things will be added to us.

And it's a very normal thing. And it's something that I do. And it's something

that you probably do. And I'm not condemning you for it.

Like, this is what grows in the soil of the human heart.

We live in a story, but we have to tend to that.

And we have to consider, what are the things that I am accepting?

What are the anxieties that I'm letting in my heart? Like, what are they doing to me in the long term?

And are they choking out the better and truer confession that God will bring

everything about in his own time and that he is the blessed and only sovereign,

the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

And so I don't have to sit on the throne of my life and I don't have to bear

the burden of the treasury of the kingdom, right?

And I don't have to be concerned about the macroeconomics of the world because

I have a true Lord and a King of Kings who alone is immortal and who lives in

unapproachable light and who no one ever seen.

And so I can honor him in his eternal power in what I fixate on and what I worry about.

And so I can be concerned more to live into this kingdom story.

And when I do that, that's when we get to this verse 23. The worship team can

come up. We're just wrapping up here.

Verse 23, this final, this good start.

As Jesus puts this seed, this word of the kingdom into our lives,

this is what he intends to see.

The one sown in the good ground, this is the one who hears and understands the

word and who does produce fruit and yields some 100,

some 60, some 30 times what was sown.

And again, what is this story? It's the parable of the sower.

This end result, this fruitful life is the product of a faithful God who's giving

us news of life and peace and reconciliation and forgiveness and the fullness

of the Holy Spirit and in promise of eternity with him.

And he says, those who receive that, that message gets planted in the soil of

their life and it yields this harvest.

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, and self-control, the fruits of the Spirit coming out of my life

in greater and greater measure.

As I'm less preoccupied with these other things and as I'm growing in depth

and rootedness in receiving this message and as I am praying for spiritual power

and for the implanting of this Word, which is able to,

as 1 Peter says, able to save your soul.

Fruitfulness is coming out of your life. And it's not your fruitfulness.

It's what the sower has done.

I think I said a couple of weeks ago, this little quote just comes to mind. I want to share it again.

I can't remember the guy's name who said it, but he said, I got saved and I

had this explosion of gratitude in my life and it's been getting worse every

single year, which I really love that idea.

Because what is this story? The story of the soil is, well, I was just sitting

here being soil, and somebody threw something at me.

And that thing came in, it took root, it grew, and it was fruitful.

And I mean, of all the soils in the parable, that's the jackpot.

That's the one you want to be. Of course, we all understand that.

We all want to be this kind of thing.

But the soil didn't do anything. The soil simply heard the message,

received that seed, that seed grew, and it was fruitful.

It was fruitful because there is freedom in the kingdom.

Dallas Willard says about seeds that seeds have the potential to organize reality.

Organize reality, which I love.

I mean, that's what the kingdom message does in my life. It organizes my reality.

It organizes things and it just says, hey, actually, these things that you think

are so important, they're actually not that important.

There's things that you can let go, or you can work on letting go.

You can develop the trust in Jesus so that you can not trust so much in yourself over time, right?

And you'll find that as you do that, and as you lean into that work,

and as you develop that trust in Jesus, that there's joy in that.

There's freedom in that.

There's freedom in letting go of people's impressions of you or me and being

just free to be who God created you to be.

There's freedom in being less worried about what's going to come of your life

and if you have enough because you have a Father who loves you.

There's freedom in that.

I want us to understand that because, I mean, Paul reminds us of that,

that it's for freedom that we've been set free. like the goal of the Christian life.

I mean, yes, like salvation is great, but that's not the goal.

The goal is this fruitfulness.

Like salvation is the byproduct. It's wonderful that we get to be with Jesus

and live eternally with him in heaven, that we can have our destiny secured in him. How wonderful.

But what he wants to do is just let our lives abound because he goes in and

he makes beautiful things and he organizes our reality.

He even can organize our sinful hearts because none of these soils are the sinless one.

And by the way, Jesus, everybody's sinful, but Jesus, the word of God,

the forgiveness of God, the message of the gospel of grace, it can change things.

And so I just want us to sit there and let us think about that.

I just want to take a moment, okay?

I just want to take one moment and just sit here.

No matter where you're at, if this is kind of a new message or an old one,

I want you to just consider what it would mean.

Like envision yourself as a freer person in these areas.

Is less anxious, less concerned about finances, less concerned about the burdens

of like being king of your own life.

And what would it look like for you to have greater measure of trust?

I'm not talking about perfect trust because how can you even conceive of that, right?

But seeking first the kingdom of heaven in our life, what would that look like?

And I just want you to take one second to think about that. Well, I'm going to wait.

And then i just want to say okay i want to i'm going to do this along with you

just just come together before the lord and just and just pray this way uh lord

um we see your call to fruitfulness and we see life in the kingdom is being

good and blessed and awesome so lord Lord,

show us the way towards that greater trust.

Lord, if we need a confidence that you care for us, Lord, would you provide

that? Lord, again, these are things that you give.

So Lord, we hold our hands out before you, empty-handed as we've always been,

and we say, Lord, would you take away our anxieties and would you give us a

clearer picture of the kingdom message that you are Lord and we can trust you? Lord, would you...

Music.