He is Good | The Effect of God’s Word | Mark 7:1-13 | Coleton Segars

We are in a series right now titled He Is Good and going through the Gospel of Mark bit by bit and we're finally into chapter 7 and uh yeah just moving just kind of section by section all the way through Mark and um the reason we titled it that and a big part of it is is just wanting to look at Jesus.

So many of the gospels focus on what Jesus said, um some of the miracles and things like that, and like Mark's gospel focuses on the man himself, like it really tries to give you this picture of Jesus in a way that the other gospel writers just have a different focus.

And Mark's like, look at him.

You need to look to him and see him that he is good.

And so we want to do that as well.

Um, because I I think in my experience growing up, and maybe everybody's um experience is different, but my experience growing up was I did not see Jesus as good.

I saw him as someone that would hinder the goodness in my life.

Um, and so if that has ever been your experience, um I resonate with that, and I think Mark is writing to people and saying, like, no, he actually in fact is good.

Uh you should give your life to him.

Every bit of it, every part of it, you should give your life to him.

And so uh today we're gonna look at Mark 7, verses 1 through 13.

Mark 7:1–13

And this is what he writes.

It says the Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed.

The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremony ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders.

When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash, and they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers, and kettles.

So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?

And Jesus replied, Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you, hypocrites, as it is written, These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

They worship me in vain, their teachings are merely human rules.

You have laid aside the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.

And he continued, You have a fine way of rejecting the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions.

For Moses said, Honor your father and mother, and anyone who curses their father and mother is to be put to death.

But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corbin, that is, it's devoted to God, then you no longer let them do anything for their father and mother.

Thus making the word of God of no effect through your tradition.

Tradition that you have handed down, and you do many things like that.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

When I was second church, I was pastoring at as a as a youth pastor in Wisconsin, um reading these books on like how to do church ministry and philosophies of ministry and what the church should be like and all these different things.

I got really locked into this idea that like church is really just for like unchurched people, and um that we should remove any type of sacred thing from the church that gets in the way of uh that makes any unchurched, non-religious person, if it makes them feel weird, let's just get rid of it.

Um and I got really bent on that and I was like, man, I this is the way the church is gonna go, whatever.

And so I was on this walk with Rainey and Larry and Sherry, my father-in-law and my mother-in-law.

And uh I'm, you know, just I'm like 25, like, and I know everything at that at that point.

And I'm just telling Larry, who's been doing ministry for whatever, you know, however long, and I'm just like, yeah, you know, you're probably doing it all wrong.

Here's how we should do it.

And I didn't say it like that, I was more respectful than that.

But I was like, you know, I just I just feel like you know, there's an old way of doing it, and like this is a new way of doing it, all this different stuff.

And he listens and he is very nice and listens to me.

And uh he hears all the different things of like getting rid of, like, if we pray long prayers, like that might weird people out.

If we ever raise our hands in worship, that might weird people out.

If we like preach on miracles or something, miracles, you know, we don't see those anymore, that might weird people out.

I'm just like, we just dismiss it, dismiss it, dismiss it, dismiss it.

And um, and he just listens to all of my just garbage, you know, and uh on the walk, and just very calmly he says this line He says, Um, he says, if you remove uh all the things that non-believers don't like or understand about the church, how will the church ever become a house of prayer, like Jesus said?

I think that was it.

Like, and maybe to you that wasn't profound, but I was like, huh.

I don't know, I've never thought about that.

Like I I didn't I don't know.

Um and I was like, but I'm pretty sure I'm right and you're wrong.

Um and um it was just this space for me where it was like he was listening to me and clearly disagreed with me, but the way that he disagreed with me was very kind and very thoughtful, and he didn't announce his own opinions, he was just like literally just disagreeing with me by pushing me back to consider what the scriptures actually say and to focus on what the Bible actually says.

And it was very sweet, and I told Randy this the other day, I was like, I've never forgotten that because it has now shaped my vision of the church today and what I want the church to actually be.

I one of the prayers I pray, I'm like, Lord, make our church a house of prayer.

Um and so like I've been super shaped by that, and I'm so I'm very thankful for that.

But it was a hard thing, right?

Like I was saying this stuff and then and then he like disagreed with me and like just we kept walking, but like my conversation, I was like, maybe I don't talk about this anymore.

And um because I don't know.

And uh and so, anyways, I say all of that to say um he disagreed with me in a way that pushed me back to the scriptures.

I'm going to today try and disagree and offend every single person in a kind way by pushing you back to the scriptures, okay?

So that's what I'm gonna do.

Whatever Larry did to me, and y'all love him, I'm gonna try and do that to you guys in this.

Um, because there are some things here, like there's some pushback here that Jesus is is pushing back against the Pharisees, and there's some pushback that I think we always need in the life of the church.

And so I want to try, I'm not gonna try and offend you or anything, but I do want us to be pushed back to consider man, are there traditions of the elders, are there things in our lives that we hold to that we're dismissing the scriptures by holding on to other things that we think are more important?

And so that's what I'm gonna try and do today.

All right, that was a long intro.

Um, but the way that I'm gonna do this is by we're we're gonna look at something that we're all tempted to do, okay?

Uh and then we're gonna look at um something we desperately need to know.

We see this in the text, something we desperately need to know that Jesus tells them, and then I want to have a question that I want you to consider.

So something we all are tempted to do, just as religious people, uh something we um need to ultimately uh consider as a question, and then something that um well, anyways, let me just keep going.

Something we're all tempted to do.

The first thing, here we go.

Something we're all tempted to do.

Uh the the Pharisees followed the tradition of the elders, that's what Jesus is talking about.

Uh David Gozik, in his commentary on this, he says, in Judaism of that time, these Pharisees, these people who should know the Bible so well, in Judaism of that time honored the written law of God.

They did honor the Bible.

But he says, but there was also this oral law, which was man's tradition or the interpretation on top of what was written of the law.

And many of the Jewish leaders of the time honored the oral law more than the written law.

And then Warren Wearsby in his commentary says this to show how true this was.

This rabbi, this Jewish rabbi Eleazar said, He who expounds or explains the scriptures in opposition to the tradition has no share in the world to come.

Like he saw it that big.

If you explain the Bible and it disagrees with the rabbi's explanation of the Bible, then you are destined for hell.

Like you disagree with man's tradition, therefore you're destined for that.

The Mishnah Collection of Jewish tradition records it is a greater offense to teach anything contrary to the voice of the rabbis than to contradict the scripture itself.

And so it's worse to contradict what someone, someone's interpretation of the Bible than to actually contradict the Bible itself.

And what had happened is these people that Jesus is talking to, the Pharisees that are talking to him, their interpretation of the Bible had become more important to them than the Bible itself.

What they thought it said, or what they interpreted it to say, I was like, that was held up as a value, versus like, this is actually what the scriptures say.

And this is what Jesus is referencing in verses eight and nine.

He says, you have laid aside the commands of God and you're holding on to human traditions.

He says, You have a fine way.

You're not, this isn't just elevating one over the other.

You've rejected the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions.

You're using your tradition to break the command to honor your father and mother.

And you're like, I don't have to honor my father and mother now because I'm doing this thing, which is really important to other rabbis and other things.

Like I'm I'm doing this, and so I don't have to do that.

And he goes, you can't X out a command of God by just your own ideas and what you think.

And so that's what's happening.

They stopped following what God had said and they started following what they said God said.

So they're not following what God actually says, they're following what they say God says, which is basically the way of going, I'm not going to do what God wants me to do, I'm just going to do what I want to do and tell them tell everybody that that's what God wants me to do.

And so that's basically what they're doing.

Now, for us and for the people in this room and other people at different churches, we don't have tradition of the elders in this in this regard.

We don't have this thing.

But we are tempted in many ways to do the exact same thing, to elevate, here's what I want God's word to say, um, here's what I want to do, and so I'm just gonna try and figure out a way to get there and then baptize it in Bible language or in some verse that I just pull out of context so that I can then do the thing that I actually want to do.

Okay.

So we do that in many ways.

We're tempted to do this.

I'm gonna give you three.

One of the ways that I've seen this just as a pastor in the last 20 years, the way that I've seen people try and do their tradition of the elders is the first is interpreting scripture just to justify their behavior.

Interpreting scripture to justify their behavior.

So it's really misinterpreting scripture to justify their behavior.

So we don't want to align our lives with the Bible.

We want the Bible to align with our lives.

This is what we see.

So a couple of examples here.

Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst.

If you've been a pastor at all or no pastors, people use this to justify missing church to go on vacation or go hunting or something like that.

And they're like, but there was two of us there, so wherever two or three are gathered, we're doing that thing.

And I'm like, that's not at all what that verse is saying.

Jesus is talking about like a small congregation is still powerful.

It's not having, you can only be powerful and experience God's presence if you have thousands.

Like, no, no, no, where two or three are gathered.

My presence is still the most powerful thing in the room.

It doesn't matter if there's a thousand of you or two of you.

It's not a it's not a way to justify missing church and abandoning the community.

Now, if you're listening on the podcast, some of you are listening because you're on vacation right now.

Go on vacation.

It's fine to miss church.

Like it's it's okay.

Like just it's not fine to misinterpret the Bible to justify something.

And so to snag a verse out of concept like we did church at the lake.

No, you didn't.

You just went on vacation to the lake.

And it's fine.

You're free in Christ.

Go on vacation, go hunting, miss church every now and then.

Don't abandon community.

We want you here.

But like this idea of like, ah, yeah, we did that.

Like, no, you didn't.

And that's okay.

You just went on vacation, and people need to do that.

That's okay.

All right.

That's the one of them that I see.

Some of them are funny, and some of them maybe they'll hit a little harder.

But uh, speaking the truth in love.

Speaking the truth in love.

People use this to justify whatever they want to say, but if they like, but I said it in a loving way because I love you.

And it's like, yeah, but you were a jerk in Jesus' name.

That's what you actually were.

What this verse, speaking the truth in love, because actually verse, is talking about, is guarding against false doctrine in the church.

And so, unless that's what you're doing, um, then you're not doing what the verse is actually talking about.

You're just saying things and then baptizing it, and I swear I love you.

I'm just saying really terrible things to you.

Uh this verse doesn't justify complaining against someone, it doesn't justify you saying what you don't like about them, but it's okay because you said it in a loving way.

That's not what that verse means.

Uh people say, I'm just being honest.

God tells me to be, you know, to be honest.

Let my yes be yes, my no be no.

And they use this to basically just berate people and tell them all the things they hate about them.

And they're like, but I'm just being honest.

Like, God tells me to be honest, not to bear false witness.

And so they use a Bible verse to do that.

And it's amazing to me that their honesty is always negative.

You ever notice that?

Somebody's just being honest?

Your honesty is always negative.

Somehow you missed all the other verses that say you should use your words to build one another up.

You should use your words to encourage people, you should use your words to be honest in kind ways, too.

And it's like, no, no, I'm just being honest.

Like, yeah, you always use that.

When you knock people down and you hurt them and you say horrible things to them, it's like, but I'm just being honest.

God loves me that I'm being honest.

It's like, you're being rude and you're saying Jesus told you to.

That's wrong.

Jesus says, don't judge.

People use this verse to basically, if you're sinning at all and someone says, hey, I think that's sin, you shouldn't do that.

Don't judge me.

Jesus says we shouldn't judge.

And it's like, that's not, again, that's not what this is talking about.

You miss the verse where Paul says we shouldn't judge those outside the church, but we absolutely should judge those inside the church who are sinning as sinners.

Like you absolutely should talk about that and try and get sin out of the church because it's actually something that's destructive to the person and to the church itself.

And so this idea of like it's a it's a shield up, like you can't, you can't ever say anything against me, otherwise you're judging me.

And so we use that verse to basically just, I can do whatever I want, and if anybody disagrees, why are you judging me?

That's wrong.

Men say this sometimes, I've never heard it here, which I'm very thankful, but men say, My wife needs to submit to me because that's what it says in the Bible in Ephesians 5.

It actually says what it should say.

Uh, what it says is you should both submit to one another.

It does say that my wife, you wives submit to your husbands.

But the verse previous to that is submit to one another.

Wives submit to your husbands, husbands, lay down your life for your wives.

The onus is actually more responsible, more responsibility is put on the man, not on the woman.

You're supposed to lay down your life, she's just supposed to submit to you.

But people use this like, she's gotta do whatever I say.

She's gotta do whatever I say because uh this is what the Bible says.

And what it means is like you're supposed to, she is supposed to serve you, she absolutely is, and you're supposed to serve her.

But we all know that if if Rainey wants to serve me and be kind to me, and I'm driving 120 down the interstate, uh, weaving in and out of traffic in a dangerous way, the best way she can serve me is tell me to slow down, to disagree with me.

One of the best ways that you can serve somebody is by disagreeing with that person and telling them to repent or telling them that, hey, I'm gonna serve you by telling you you're wrong.

I'm gonna serve you, I'm gonna try and help you by pointing out flaws in your life.

Some of the best service that's ever happened is there's people in my life going like, hey, this is a blind spot for you.

And so it's not right to say that, like, oh, she's supposed to submit to me and that means she does whatever I said.

No, no.

She's supposed to go hard against you if you're doing something that is dangerous, ineffective, or wrong, or sinful, or whatever.

And so this idea that's like just do whatever I say because I'm right, and God says He's placed you under me.

Come on.

That's not what it says.

All right.

God is sovereign, so he's gonna do whatever he's gonna do, regardless of my prayers and actions.

That's honestly, this overlooks so much of what Jesus says.

He's like, some kinds only come out by prayer.

Some things only happen by prayer.

Jesus actually says that.

Um, and so the idea means like it won't happen if you don't pray.

It overlooks all these different things that like the prayers of a righteous person are powerful and avail much.

And so, yes, God is sovereign.

And so, because he rules over all, which is what sovereign means, because he rules over all, he has instituted this way that prayers actually shift and change things in the world under his authority and under his guidance.

And so, yes, you're not wrong, he is sovereign.

But to say that, like, so I don't have to pray because he's gonna do whatever he's gonna do anyways, I don't have to, my actions don't matter because God's gonna do whatever he's gonna do anyways, that's not true, that's a lie.

All right, that's one way, just misinterpreting the Bible to justify the things that we do want to do or don't want to do.

The second way we do this is disregarding parts of the Bible we don't like.

This is probably the most uh rampant one that I just, you know, just people I talk to, just like the Bible says this, like, yeah, I don't really care about that.

Um so one would be like, give generously and sacrificially.

And some people say, like, I don't have to give money to the church, or I don't have to give generously because I really I serve with my time, I give of my time, I'm generous with my time, and that's great.

But there's no Bible verse that says, hey, because you give of your time, you don't have to be generous with your stuff.

There isn't that.

And if you can point to that, then I would be like, okay, great.

Like, uh, and so that doesn't say that.

It also doesn't say the other, like, hey, I give to the church or I give money, so I don't have to give my time.

No, no, no.

It also doesn't say that.

If you give of your money and that you think that therefore excludes you from being a servant in the life of other people, in the life of the church, that also is wrong.

You're supposed to serve others with your gifts to build up the church.

Uh, husbands, love your wives.

Uh as you're as you love yourself, wives respect your husbands.

Most of the time, people go, I'll love her when she does something for me.

I'll show him respect when he earns my respect.

That's not how the Bible says it.

That's not how it goes.

That actually will lead to more damage in your relationship than anything good.

If anyone would come after me, they must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

That's what Jesus said.

And I talk to people who's like, yeah, that's kind of intense.

Like, some people follow Jesus in an intense way.

They like pray and they read their Bible, they go to church, and like, you know, don't, they try to like they repent of their sin.

And like, that's just kind of like, that's not me.

I'm not that intense in my faith.

I do it differently.

I'm like, you're differently?

It's called sin.

You're sinning.

That's what that's called.

You, Jesus is not saying you do you.

Like, he's not like, if anyone would come after me, just do whatever you want.

Uh if you want your cross, that's cool.

If not, don't worry about it, but just come, just you'll be fine.

Like he doesn't say anything.

It's like, no, it's it's it's very directed.

Like, this is the way that you're supposed to come after me.

Take up your cross, deny the things that you would normally naturally do.

Consider others better than yourself, outdo one another in showing honor, forgive those who sin against you.

Dallas Willard, in his quote uh on Christianity today, referencing this, he's actually referencing back in the 80s and 90s, but he says, we now live in a time when consumer Christianity has become the accepted norm.

And all-out engagement with Jesus is regarded as optional and as somewhat overdoing it.

By contrast, the biblical pattern from beginning to end is be doers of the word and not hearers only.

And I think there's this space where with people with the scriptures, they just disregard it because it's like, hey, that's kind of over.

Like you, you're gonna, you want to all the Bible to speak to your life?

Like you every verse is like something that you think that you should, that's kind of intense.

That's that's overdoing it.

And it's like actually, uh according to the scriptures, that's just the radical standard minimum of following Jesus is seeing God's word as being authority over our lives.

And so it's this space where um we don't have a tradition of the elders, but one of the traditions of just Christians in general is to like, I like these verses, I don't like these verses, I uphold these and I disregard those.

Those would affect my life, so I just kick those off to the side, and these I stick with, and I still call myself a Christian.

All right, that's the second.

Uh some of you in this, just pause for fast.

Some of some of this may be like, oh yeah, I do that.

And some of you are like, I don't know if I do that at all, I don't think I do that at all.

My point isn't to like try and figure out one that you absolutely do.

This is just the nature of we don't have oral tradition passed down to us on things that we actually that help us overlook the scriptures.

We do this to ourselves in these particular ways.

Third way that we do this is we trust our own experience more than God's word.

We hold our experience of God as more true and reliable than what God actually says.

So, for instance, people say things like, I haven't seen people be healed in Jesus' name.

I I haven't I've never seen a miraculous thing happen, I've never heard God speak to me, I haven't seen prayer change things.

And then so that's my experience.

And so because it's my experience, it doesn't lead us to go, but the scriptures testify that these things are true.

It doesn't lead us to go, that means I'm missing out on something.

Why am I missing out on something?

It leads us to go, I've never experienced that, so that must not be real.

And so we undermine and actually overlook all the things that the scripture says about like, actually, this should be your experience.

This was experientially supposed to be what you what you walked in.

You're not not experiencing something and then diminishing the scriptures and proving them to be untrue.

You're actually just missing out on something that you should go and aim at and look for.

And so some people have have not experienced these things and been like, so they're not true, or they've experienced bad ways of people abusing these things, healing ministries, and you know, just people speaking prophetic words, I heard from God that like you need to sell your car, or I heard from God that you need to marry me.

Don't try that.

Um, like, and so like this is bad, like we don't need to, we don't need to do this.

And like, yes, that is bad.

We shouldn't do that.

Um, but it doesn't, but it doesn't diminish the fact that the scriptures say that my sheep hear my voice.

My sheep know my voice, they hear my voice, they respond to my voice.

We're supposed to hear the voice of God.

It's supposed to be a thing.

Just because somebody's done it wrong, don't let your experience actually exclude what the scriptures actually say.

And so this is a huge one that I see in the life of the church.

Um, that instead of reading the scriptures honestly and realizing I'm just missing out on something, they go like, I don't, I'm not missing out.

That's just fake.

Jesus said, those who follow me and come after me will do the things that I've done and do more.

And the way it's been interpreted is like, I don't think that's really what he meant, even though he said, Very truly, I say to you.

I don't know what you what what what what it means, other than very truly, he's saying to you this thing.

Um, and so we can't allow our experience, but we do allow our experience to be more important and more trustworthy.

This is my experience, and that's more trustworthy than what God actually says.

And so those are ways that we do some of those things.

The temptation exists in our lives, like it did in theirs, to have God's word, but then find ways, loopholes around it.

And things around it to go like, I'm, I think I'm just gonna do this.

And it's like, but God, God's word says this.

And it's like, yeah, but I disregard that piece.

Or actually, the way I interpret that is it doesn't fall to me.

I don't need to actually do that.

Or in my experience, like that's not something that I need to actually take in.

And what we do, what Jesus says, is like, it's not like, oh yeah, we just see these things differently.

Jesus says, you are rejecting God's word.

You're you're removing it from your life.

You're not just ha I just have a different take.

He's going, you reject it full well.

You reject the commands of God in order to go your own way and do your own thing.

It's not a different view or outlook.

It's actually just full on.

You're rejecting God's word.

The tragedy of that is the second point, because something we desperately need to understand is what Jesus says about his word and why it's so vital and why it's so important and why we shouldn't, we should actually fight not to figure out loopholes around it.

We should fight to figure out how do we get it into our lives.

And so something we desperately need to understand is that when we do this, Jesus says this in verse 13, when we reject God's word, we make, um, I'll say it here, by doing this, you are making the word of God of no effect through your tradition.

The tradition you've handed down, and you do many things like that.

Through doing this, by looking at your tradition, by misinterpreting it or using your experience, you're rendering God's word to have zero effect in your life.

And what Jesus is pointing to, he's saying, like, there's actually supposed to be an effect that happens in your life and through your life because God's word is in your life.

It's supposed to do something.

His word was meant to affect you in a great way.

And so if you reject it and you push it off, it's not like, well, so I'll just continue living life.

He's like, you will miss out on the life that you were actually supposed to have.

If you reject it, you're not going to experience the effect that God's word was supposed to have, which is not to condemn you, but to lead you to life.

It's supposed to be this thing.

Notice Jesus doesn't say, when you do this, uh you're sinning and you're doing bad and you should do better.

He's like, no, no, I mean, and yes, probably.

But like that's not his focus.

His focus isn't you're you're being disobedient.

His focus is you're missing out.

When you do this, you make God's word have no effect in your life.

Like it's supposed to do something for you, and it's not doing it.

He says you're missing out on the effect that God's word is supposed to have in your life.

So just real quick, I talked to two or three people this week about this point and expressed to them, I cannot figure out how to get this into their heart because there's so much history with people who have grown up in the church that they've heard about God's word as a guide or a rule book or a map or some kind of instruction manual for life or something like that.

And it's very, very difficult to break that out of your mind and your heart and implant a new thing.

And so I just felt like I just needed to ask, please don't hear me saying what you have heard, okay, in the past.

Unless it's just and so, like, try.

I'm gonna try and go very slow, but I because I want to present something that Jesus presents that is completely different than like, oh, the Bible's rules, or the Bible's a map, or the Bible's like, like, I want to present something that I think he actually says here, and I want it to sink into your heart because it's actually really, really beautiful.

Okay.

His words are not just rules to follow, they're meant to actually affect change and something.

It's supposed to transform your life.

Supposed to do those things.

Be transformed by the renewal of your mind by the word of God.

It's supposed to do something in your life.

This is how we commonly see God's word.

Okay.

We see uh God's word plus obedience equals now God is pleased with me and he blesses me.

This is a legalistic religious way of viewing it.

If I obey, then God will bless me.

Uh or next slide, or the other way, God's word minus obedience, God is not pleased with me, so he does not bless me.

I was supposed to do this thing, I didn't do it, and now God didn't bless me because I didn't do the right thing.

Uh that is completely wrong.

Okay, so if that's your view, that's wrong.

And you you're it's it's so good that it's wrong because that's legalism and that's wrong.

Okay?

How it actually works, and this is how Jesus talks about it working, that his words have effect.

His words, as Jesus talks about them, don't go just yet, Kyle.

That his words are seed packed with life and abundance and fullness.

Like it's a it's an actual thing.

So, okay, now go to the next slide.

Okay, so this is my version of a seed.

You're you're gonna be you're gonna love some of the images I have.

And so Jesus talks about his word as a seed that's filled with potential abundance of life.

And so it's like this thing that exists.

Here's if you just packaged his word, and it's filled with love and peace and joy and wholeness and abundance and patience, life, hope, self-control, kindness, goodness, contentment.

It's just stacked full.

He says it's it is like a seed that is just packed full with potential power and life and life-transforming stuff that we all long for.

This fullness and wholeness that we're lacking.

He's like, my word is stacked full of those things.

So that's how Jesus talks about it.

And the way that it's supposed to work is, go to the next slide.

Obedience to, see, you love my images, obedience plants that seed into, this is how Jesus talks about it.

Obedience plants that seed, his word, if you it plants it into your life, and then naturally, what grows, that seed, whatever it's filled with, if that seed is filled with death, what will grow in your life is death.

But if it is filled with an eternal kind of life, like an everlasting, unending kind of life, if that's what the seed is filled with, and you plant it into the soil of your life, what will grow in your life is that type of stuff.

And so that's the way that he talks about it.

So go to the next slide.

And so the way that it actually works is out of love for you, he has given you his word, which is seed stacked with life and stacked with fullness and stacked with abundance.

And he asks us and calls us, be obedient to these things, because when you do, it sinks it down into the soil of your life, and then you harvest those things in your life.

That's the way that works.

And it's not like now you did something good, so now I'll bless you.

He's like, I have already blessed you.

I have given you this blessing.

If you will just put it into your life, it will grow blessing into your life because it's stacked with blessing.

I've already given it to you.

I'm not now more pleased with you.

Now I love you, so I'll bless you.

No, no, no.

I love you, so I have blessed you.

I just now trust me, stick this into your life and let it grow.

On the other side, if you have his word and then through disobedience, you just choose not to plant it like a farmer who wants food but doesn't plant anything, you have no harvest.

And it's not because, well, God's mad at me, that's why nothing's growing.

Like, no, you just you missed a step.

Like you didn't do the thing you're supposed to do.

I mean, if if a farmer was sitting there, like, I don't know, my field, it's got nothing but weeds in it, it's like, do you plant any seed?

Like, no, not yet.

It's like, well, I have some ideas of why it's not working.

Like, and you're a farmer, sure.

And I think there's so much, like we have Christians.

We have Christians, are you experiencing the life of a Christian?

It's like, not really.

Like you uh you doing any of the stuff?

Like you doing any of it, like you planting any of it?

It's like, no, I don't.

I just I I am a Christian.

Uh I'm just not you know planting anything Christian like into my life.

And it's like, man, I got a couple of thoughts of why it's going so terribly for you.

Like you could actually experience, go back to the last slide.

You could experience so much.

Like there's this the way that this works, it's out of love that he's given us his word, these things in the scriptures to plant into our lives by obedience.

And it doesn't make him then go, okay, now I'll bless you.

It's like the blessing has already been given.

Just stick it into your life and you'll experience something.

To me, people don't understand this a lot.

Um, and I know this for a fact because people will say, if God will forgive me every time I'm disobedient, why don't I just live the way that I want to live and just ask for forgiveness?

And they're not wrong.

God will forgive you every single time.

Uh His grace abounds where sin abounds.

He will absolutely forgive you.

But that question shows you do not understand what God's word actually is.

You don't understand that He has given you a thing that if you will plant it into your life, you will experience greater and greater abundance of life.

Because you would never do it, you would never do it, if you were a farmer and they were like, I mean, if my wife will forgive me if we don't feed the kids because we have no food, um, so I'm not gonna plant any seed in my field and grow any.

You'd be like, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Like, why would you what are you talking about?

Like you should you should plant the seed so you have the stuff.

It's like, yes, she'll forgive you, fine.

But don't worry about forgiving.

You're gonna miss out on what you could actually grow in your life.

You can actually have this space.

And this is what Jesus says that his word is like, when you reject my word, I'm not mad at you and like you idiot.

Like, I'm not doing that.

I'm just like, you're missing out.

It will have no effect in your life, and it's supposed to produce things in your life, it's supposed to do rich, abundant things that we're longing for.

I talk to people many times and they're like, How's it going?

Bad.

It's going real bad.

How's your marriage?

Bad.

It's worse than bad.

It's real bad.

How's your kids?

Terrible.

It's real bad, really stressed out.

How's your finances?

So much debt.

I'm just dying.

Um and I'm not, I don't, obviously, I don't make fun of those people or anything like that, but I and but the experience of them going, and I'm confused as to why.

Like it's going real bad, and I'm confused as to why.

And I don't say this, and maybe I should say this, just need like man up or just have some courage or something.

But I'm like, I'm not confused.

I know why it's going bad.

Like what you're planting into your marriage is conflict.

Like, you're choosing, you're not, you're not planting God's word into your marriage and loving her as Christ loved the church and submitting to him.

You're not using your words to build him up, you're not using your words to to make her beautiful the way the scriptures are.

You're not, you're not doing any of the things.

You're not planting into your marriage any of God's actual words.

I know why your marriage is going bad, because what you're planting into your marriage are your words and your ideas or your version of what you think God has said about you.

And your words are death.

Your way is worse than his.

I know why it's going badly.

You're planting conflict in your marriage because you hold grudges against one another instead of forgiving them.

You're planting conflict.

Why are we in conflict?

Because that's the seed you're planting.

That's all you're doing.

You're just shoving that into your life and going, like, I wish it were better.

Like, plant something different.

Like, put something else in there.

Stop doing that.

You're planting selfishness in your home because everyone demands to be served, but no one is actually seeking to serve.

And so you're planting selfishness, and so now you're living in a selfish environment.

What grew in that was selfishness.

You plant bitterness in your life when you shove things under the rug instead of seeking to reconcile and live at peace as much as it concerns you, the way the scriptures say.

And so, like, why is there so much bitterness?

Why is there so much of that?

It's like, because that's those are the seeds you got, man.

That's what you're shoving into your life.

You're planting anger in your life because you keep a record of wrongs and you hold those over people's head.

Why am I so angry?

Because that's what you're planting.

You're planting discontentment in your life by comparing yourself to others.

You're planting stress in your life because you're overspending, because you're planting greed in your life.

Or like comparing yourself to other people or wanting what they have and coveting what they have, and so I'm just gonna get it anyways, even though I have to do a credit card.

It's like, ah, you're planting these things into your life and his word, God isn't sitting there going, like, you dumb stupid.

Like, he's not doing that.

He's just going, like, I gave you my commands as this gift to you, that as you see them and you you plant them into your life, what will happen is something will grow in your life that's far better than anything you can ever do.

And so if you just choose to reject those seeds, what's gonna grow is something else, and it's something that you're gonna put in there.

And so we can't, we don't need to see it as like, it's this rule, and if I follow the rules, then I will experience good.

That's not how that works.

It is like, I he has been good to you, and he's given you his word.

And he's like, will you trust me and just sink it into your soul and your heart by obedience?

And I promise you, what will come from it is a fullness that you don't understand, something you've never been able to experience before, something you've been longing for, and all of a sudden you're like, why am I content?

It's like, because you planted contentment.

You planted something else in your soul and in your heart.

And that's why the word is given, not to command your way, and he's just trying to make you a good person, like, just be a good boy.

That's not what God's doing.

He's like, I swear to you, like, I promise, if you will stick this into your whole heart and soul, you will experience so much that I have for you.

What will grow is something far better.

But most people do not understand that, and they just see it as this religious thing, and it's so sad because I'm like, man, he's not commanding you to like modify your behavior.

It will change your behavior, but it's not that.

It's not if you be nicer, your wife will like you more.

Maybe, but that's not what he's saying.

He's saying that like if you will do these things, what will sprout into your life will be something far greater.

And we miss out, and that's what Jesus is saying of the Apharisees.

We miss out when we disregard them, we miss out on the effect, we miss out when we change them.

I'm gonna manipulate God's word.

It's like, okay, what you just planted was your word, not his word.

And your word will not grow what his word can.

All right.

Did that make sense?

Okay, good.

Thanks.

Randy said thanks.

Yeah, thanks.

Okay.

All right.

So the question, the question you have to ask and consider.

That's the next one.

Eugene Peterson says this, commenting on this idea.

And he says, What a person plants, he will harvest.

The person who plants selfishness, ignoring God, harvests the crop of weeds.

But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's spirit do the growth work in him, he harvests the crop of real life.

And so the question we need to ask is next question, next slide here.

What are you planting in your life?

What primarily do you stick into your marriage?

What do you stick into how you raise your kids?

What are you planting into your uh work life, into your finances?

Are you planting your way?

Are you planting your word?

Like I'll just do it my way.

If you are, you will get something less.

And Jesus would say, Not mad at you.

I'm sad for you.

You're gonna miss out on what I actually want to give you.

Your marriage will not experience this, your singleness will not experience this, your home will not experience these things.

Not because I'm withholding.

You are withholding.

You're the one stopping it, you're the one refusing to plant this stuff in.

And so it's not growing because the seed is still in your hand and some book and maybe be on your shelf.

Like and you should pull that out, like see those things and be like, I'm gonna love someone as Christ has loved me.

I was like, okay, yeah, do that thing.

And just do that and sow those seeds because you reap what you sow, or you you you harvest what you plant.

And so if you plant your word, your way, you will reap your what your words can do, which is mostly tear down, and what your way will do, which you get yourself in the trouble you find yourself in.

And so that's what we do.

And our words are riddled with sin and selfishness, and his words are life and fullness.

And so there is this space where Paul talks about in Ephesians, uh, where he's or in Galatians, where he's sitting there and he's like, You, if you will plant to obedience, if you will, you will plant righteousness, uh, if you will, if you will just plant obedience, you will uh reap eternal life is the way, you will harvest eternal life.

And what most people think is like eternal life later, somewhere in the future.

But that that is true in part, but he was talking about now.

Like there is a life, there's there's a space in life where you get to experience the qualities of his kingdom, which is love, joy, peace, patience, I mean, just all the different things.

You get to experience the qualities of his kingdom, and you get to actually experience those things in full one day, but you can experience them in part here today.

He's not sitting there waiting like you're only going to experience this stuff in heaven one day.

That's not what that verse means.

It's like if you will plant obedience, you will be able to experience qualities and characteristics of the kingdom of heaven and what heaven will be like now.

So you won't just experience eternal life in infinity, in infinity, you will experience an eternal, unending type of life here and now.

And so that's what he's referencing.

But there's a way of existing in the world where we're not in this scarcity mindset, but we're actually filled with this abundance.

And it's not material abundance necessarily, but it's just this fullness of life that Jesus had, that he came to offer, that people experienced.

Whether they were rich or poor, whether they have had plenty or money, like I've just, I'm just filled with abundance from Jesus.

And it's like, man, what is that?

What why is your relationship like that?

Why is your marriage like that?

Why is your mental health like that?

Why is your why are your finances like that?

Why is your home like that?

Why are your kids like that?

It's like, man, I have pl I've done nothing other than like just listened and trusted that he was true to his word.

And I just I just planted that stuff into my life, and what blew up into my life was this production of things that come from heaven.

And like, I can't explain it, but like he's just done this amazing thing.

This is what he wants.

So, what are you planting into your life, your relationships, your mind, your heart, your home, your parenting, your marriage?

What are you planting?

You can interpret God's word your way and cut off what he's trying to do for you, or you can just believe him because out of love, he has given you his word so that you can experience full, abundant type of life that he has for you.

Jesus was so committed to this.

If you're like, I'm I'm, you know, does this matter?

It matters.

Jesus was so committed to for all of us years later to know this, that he was willing to give his life for it.

Because when if he disagrees with the tradition of the elders, that signs his death warrant.

Like the man's gonna die.

And so he does it here.

But he does it, he disagrees in a way because he's like, I have to, like, people need to know that my word will have no effect if they disregard it and they reject it.

And it's supposed to have this beautiful effect.

And so he was willing to literally say something that we all need to hear, knowing when I say it, they'll kill me.

And then they did.

But then you have this space where like Jesus is the seed of Abraham planted in the ground in the tomb, and then what what what comes from that three days later, what grows from that, what harvests from that, is a harvest of righteousness and sons and daughters being brought into the kingdom.

Like you see this play out in his life.

He's a living picture of like what's available.

If you just plant, he is literally God's word planted in the ground.

He is the word made flesh, planted in the ground, and then what came out of that is life unending that's available for anybody who wants it.

And so it's this picture for us to be this thing.

It's like, don't ever forget, this is what it's like.

His word is not rules to you.

And you I obey them, and so He'll he'll do something kind to me.

No, the kindness has already been given.

He's loved you already.

And so just find spaces in your life to consider what am I planting in this space?

Because whatever I plant, that's what's going to grow.

And he's like, please plant my word into your life.

Let me pray.

Lord Jesus, um, thank you that you said that.

That you would uh you were willing to say this really hard thing that uh ultimately uh led them to killing you.

That our your word was supposed to have and take effect.

It was supposed to be goodness for us, kindness towards us.

That we don't have to earn your blessing, you've already given it to us.

We don't have to earn your favor.

You've already handed it out to us.

It's available and it's at our fingertips.

And so, God, I just pray that you would by your spirit working in us.

And it would be this space where we want to consider where am I not planting his word in my life?

Where am I experiencing the most conflict?

Where am I experiencing the most discontentment?

Where am I experiencing the most angst?

And when I pray in those places that we would plant your word and not ours, your way and not ours.

So the wood rose is something far better.

Thank you that you want to do that for us.

And I pray that you would set that in our hearts in Jesus' name.

Amen.