He is Good | The Four Ways of Receiving God’s Word | Mark 4:1-20 | Coleton Segars

But we are in a series titled He is Good, looking at the Gospel of Mark, because Mark titles his gospel, This is the Good News of Jesus.

This is the beginning of the good news of Jesus.

And so I want to jump right into this because this message has six points.

And so I apologize that it has six points, but it's a lot in there.

But I'm gonna roll through it as quick as I can.

I think there's a lot here for us.

But Jesus says of this parable, that it's the most important parable that you'll ever hear, okay?

This is the one that matters the most.

This is the key to understanding everything else.

He's about to begin speaking in parables, and he says, This is the one.

And so in verse 13, he says, Don't you understand this parable?

If you don't, how then will you understand any parable that I actually say?

And so it's important for us to actually unpack this one rather slowly and methodically so that the next couple of ones we can understand what he's actually trying to get at.

I believe that Jesus says this about this parable because he is seeking to communicate three things.

He is trying to communicate to us and to them at this point.

He's trying to let them know here's what I'm doing in giving you my word.

Here's what I want to accomplish in your life by giving you my word.

So that's that's what he's he's trying to let them know.

If you're wondering what my goal is, I'm telling you my goal through this parable.

And then I'm also telling you that even though that is my goal, even though that is my goal, there are three obstacles that will get in the way of my goal actually being accomplished in your life.

And so I have a goal and I want it, I want to see it happen in your life, but there are obstacles that you're gonna face.

And then he says, But if you want to experience what I want for you, which you you do want to experience that, if you want to experience it, all you have to do is do this one thing.

And he gets to that in the fourth soil.

And so it's like, here's what I want to do, here's the obstacles and roadblocks you'll run into, but here's how it'll be accomplished.

And that's why it's so important because every parable after this, we need to know what's he trying to do in this.

And he's like, I'm trying to do this, but this is gonna happen.

But if you want to experience what I'm trying to do from it, you could do this.

And so those are our three points that we're gonna work through.

What he wants to do through his word is the first, the obstacles we'll face, and then what we can do to experience what he actually wants for us.

So the first, what he wants to do for us through his word.

This is verse 2, 3, and 14.

Uh, but go to the next slide there.

He says, it says, He taught them many things by parables.

And he says, Listen, a farmer went out to sow his seed, and then in verse 14 he explains what the seed is.

The farmer sows the word.

And so what Jesus is claiming in this particular space is that his word is like seed.

And just like seed, like a seed is full of potential life, he's like, My word is full of potential life.

There's something about this that looks small and looks like nothing, but there's something in here that will actually develop and grow something really important.

And so just as a seed has the ability to birth new life in the soil, he's going, My word has life stacked into it, and it might not look like much, but my word has the ability to develop and birth new life into you.

And what he's trying to do in this, and what he's saying, is like, the reason I'm giving you my word, the reason the farmer is sowing the seed, the reason all of that is happening, is because his actual goal is I want to see your life filled with abundance.

I want to see fruit develop, I want to see new life develop.

And so why does he give us his word?

And it's like, well, it's packed with life, and I want life to actually take root in you.

I want you to experience an abundance of life.

John would say about Jesus, and Jesus says, like, I came to give life and life and abundance.

I actually want you to experience that.

But it's stacked into my word, and so I give you that so that it would actually produce new life in us.

And so if you've ever wondered, what does Jesus want with my life?

What are you gonna do with me when you get me?

And he's like, I genuinely just want to give you this word that's like a seed that's stacked with life, and I want to see it do something in you to where what you walk away with is more life and more abundance and more fruitfulness and all of it.

I want to pour out good things into you.

I'm just gonna do it in seed form so that when it takes root, your life experiences these things.

And for me, just as we consider that idea that that's his goal, I think it's so important that we understand about him whatever he says to us, whether through his word, through the preaching of his word, through the singing of his word, through through you, just hearing from him, whatever he says to you, it is a seed that's filled with life that he's like, I am trying to build life in you, never trying to steal from you.

I'm always trying to pour something good into you.

So for a couple of examples, he tells us not to worry and to trust.

Not because our worries are stupid or there's nothing to worry about.

There's plenty of things to worry about.

But he tells us not to worry and to trust because what he's trying to do, if you will do that, if you will take that seed of my word and plant it into your life, all of a sudden what you will experience is the fruit and life of my peace that's actually available to you.

And so you you won't experience real peace if you see the command, do not worry about your life.

If you see that and go, that's crazy, that's stupid, he doesn't know what I'm walking through, then we kick off this peace that he's actually going.

But if you would take it and plant it, you would experience the peace that comes from trusting me even in the midst of your worries.

And that's why he tells us to do it.

He tells us to confess our sins, not to shame us and not to make us be like, you sinner, I knew it.

Like it's not like he does know it, but he does, that's not why he's doing it.

It says that he he washes us, he cleanses us.

Confess it there that you may be washed and cleansed.

Confess to one another and have them pray for you so that you may be healed.

The idea is confess your sin, not to shame you, but so that I could help you, so that you actually experience the healing that you want, so that you can actually, these sins that have authority over you, that that gets broken because when we confess our sin, we're confessing it to death, we're putting it to death.

And so he tells us to do that.

He tells us to pluck out the eye that causes us to sin, to cut off the hand, not because he wants to harm us or to maim us, because it's not literal, but he's doing that.

He's like, if you allow sin to live in your life, if you allow it, it will only bring death.

And it's so much better to pluck something out or to cut something off than to actually have all of your relationships destroyed and all of your joy taken away, and all of your peace and all of your love and to wind up empty rather than full.

Just pluck that thing off, cut it off, whatever.

Like he tells us to do that, not to harm us, but to help us.

He calls us to fasting, bless you.

He calls us to fasting not to deprive us of food or because he wants us to look gaunt or whatever.

Like he calls us to fast because he's like, if you will plant fasting into your life, it will develop self-control in you, the fruit, the life of self-control.

And it won't just help you with your eating habits, but it will help you with all of your selfish desires and all of the things that you think I'm too weak for.

Fasting just is one way of developing a gift of self-control so that you're not just totally run away by all the desires that you want.

And so he's like, practice this thing and it's gonna birth life into you.

Generosity, he calls us generosity because he wants us to experience true riches from him.

He wants us to experience the freedom from money, he wants us to actually experience what it's like to be blessed by him and not just blessed by paper and metal.

He calls us to worship because he commands our worship so that we experience the qualities of the things that we're singing about.

And so Dallas Willard has this quote right here.

He says, As we worship his goodness, our lives become filled with that very goodness.

And so we, it's the second most commanded thing in the Bible to worship, to praise him.

And it's like, why?

It's like, because when you elevate the qualities in my, who of who I am, those things aren't just words that you're saying.

You're you're filling your life with those things as well.

They will become your experiential difference in those that choose not to worship and those that do.

He calls us to pray so that we're transformed by spending time in his presence.

Not because he's like, I know it's hard, just grind through it, nothing's gonna happen.

But he's like, I actually want you to experience me answering prayers.

I want you to experience that I'm a good father who likes to give good gifts to his kids.

So ask.

I'm calling you to do these things so that you experience these things.

I'm trying to grow life in you.

He calls us to be thankful in all circumstances because gratitude leads to actual joy.

It's not the stuff.

Just being grateful leads to actual joy.

Being grateful leads to the contentment that we long for.

There's this book called The Emotional Intelligence, and Bradbury and Greaves say this about gratitude.

And this is just a secular book, just noticing something about gratitude.

It says the real neuroantidepressant is gratitude.

Gratitude boosts levels of serotonin and dopamine, the brain's happy chemicals.

These are the same chemicals targeted by antidepressant medications.

The striking thing about gratitude is that it can work even when things aren't going well for you, shocker.

That's what Jesus calls us to.

That's because you don't actually have to feel spontaneous gratitude in order to produce chemical changes in your brain.

You just have to force yourself or practice being disciplined to think about something in your life that you appreciate.

This train of thought activates your brain to make you feel happier.

And so Jesus is like, I want you to be thankful in every circumstance.

Like, but my circumstance is terrible.

And he's like, I know it's hard right now, but be thankful in every circumstance about something.

It does something in you.

And if you take that word of mine that's filled with life and you plug it into your life, you'll experience life from it.

And that's what he wants for us consistently.

His goal for all of you, regardless of the spectrum that you're on with him and what you believe about him, his goal is for you to experience greater life from his word, and that's why he gives it to you consistently.

One of the most, probably, one of the most important promises of the scriptures to me, is that Jesus says that he wants his followers to be a witness unto him.

And so it's this passage in Acts 1.8, you'll receive power and the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will go and be my witnesses.

And we think I should go witness, I should verb, I should go and verb something.

And he's saying, No, no, you will be a noun, you will be a witness, you will witness unto me.

You will be your life will be a witness unto me.

And the importance of that, that tiny little thing, is we all have things that witness unto us.

So, Derek, where are you at?

Derek, he's right there.

He he he like restores houses and builds houses.

His work is a witness unto his abilities.

And he wants that work to be good work so that he gets paid.

And then other people go, his work witnessed unto Derek, and everybody likes Derek, and so you should get more work.

Colin is an artist and a sculptor.

He wants his work to witness unto his abilities so that other people want to do those things.

Whatever you actually really want to witness about you, you want that thing to be great.

Some of you close deals and work in finance and money, wealth management, all these.

You want your work and your way of dealing with their money to be a witness unto your trustworthiness and your hard work and your work at it.

It is a your work and the thing that you want to tell somebody else something about you, you want that thing to be great.

And what Jesus is promising in that passage is I'm gonna take the responsibility of making your life be great because I need it to witness about what I'm like and my greatness.

And so I'm going to do things in your life.

I'm gonna, I wanna, I wanna put into your life life and blessing and joy and happiness and all of the, I want to absolutely wreck you with peace and all these different things so that when people see you out in the world, you will be a witness unto that I of what I can do.

This is what I'm like, this is what's available with me.

And so he's taking the responsibility on himself to go, you don't have to go and try and find these things.

You will be my witness.

And so I will take the onus and the responsibility of making sure that your life actually does testify to my actual goodness.

I will make sure that your life testifies to the blessings that I actually can bless people with.

I will make sure that your life testifies to my greatness, my the how wonderful I am, how kind, how gracious, how forgiving.

I'm going to take that on.

And so, because that's true of him, and that's what he's saying, when he chooses to give us his word, what he's trying to do is to make our lives a living, breathing symbol and witness to what he can actually do.

And so he gives you his word so that what you walk away with is more life, more abundance, so that when you do step out into the world, people look at you and then go, man, why is your life that way?

And it is a witness, a visible picture of what Jesus is actually like.

That is his plan for all of us.

That's what he wants to do in your life and in mine.

And this is why he gives us his word, and this is what he's saying.

Every parable after this, every single thing that I say, everything, I'm gonna give you word that's filled with life so that it goes into your life and it actually builds and gives life to actual abundance.

That's what he wants for us.

That's what he wants.

The issue is that there are obstacles in the way of all of this.

What he wants to see happen, I'm gonna, he's like, I'm gonna do it.

You want you want abundance, and I love to give abundance.

It's the perfect pair.

The issue is there's obstacles in the way.

And he mentions three of them.

The first is hardened soil and the enemy.

And he says this in verse 15.

These are things that stop his word from producing abundant life that he's actually trying to give us.

It's available, it's to all of us.

You can have it if you want it, but there's obstacles.

And he says, harden soil and the enemy is the first.

Verse 15, some people are like seeds sown along the path where the word is sown.

As soon as they hear it, Satan comes, takes away the word that was sown in them.

Let me pause for a second.

Um, this is going to happen now.

Like there are there are three obstacles that Jesus says when his word is preached or proclaimed or given, this is happening as we sit here.

There will be people whose hearts are gonna be hardened towards.

I don't perceive that in any way.

I don't believe any of that.

And then Satan's gonna come and snag that thing.

There are gonna be certain people that are just we'll get to them, but respond in all three of these ways.

And so, just as an aside before we get into this, check your heart on this and see is this happening?

Is he calling you out just from the page and going like, oh my gosh, he's reading my mail?

That's exactly how I'm responding to the word.

I would just encourage you to see that.

So the hardened soil.

Some people are like that, Satan comes, takes away the word that was sown on them because the path is so difficult.

And so, what he's saying in this one, this obstacle, like a hard path where something lands on it and can't get through, it's it lays out in the open.

The word just lays out in the open, it's exposed, and it's exposed to be taken away.

And so what he's saying is like there's some people that hear God's word and hear Jesus' words back then and still today, that have already just decided, I've already decided I'm not gonna listen to you.

I've already decided what I think on that topic, I already decided what I think on that issue.

I don't care what your word says.

My heart is as soft as a plate of glass.

Like it's just not going to happen, it's not gonna get through.

I've already decided what I think about that.

And so preach your heart out, brother.

Tell us what you want, Jesus, but it's not gonna get through.

I already know what I think about that, and I don't need your advice or your word for that.

He's saying there's some people that are exactly like that.

And what's interesting is that the hard path isn't enough to keep the word from actually getting in, because Satan knows, and I think we would all know, like seed can actually soften soil over time, even if it was really difficult.

And so it's not just a hardened path, but there's an enemy actually that goes, like, I can't leave the word on top of the hard path, even though they're like dead set against Jesus.

I can't leave the word there.

We must go and steal it, because if I leave it there, it will eventually soften the soil and get in there.

And Satan's like, I don't want that to ever happen.

And so Satan goes and he actually snatches it like a bird so that you never think about it again.

You you told me you didn't want you, you told Jesus, I already know what I think about that, I'm not gonna believe anything you say.

He goes and snatches it, you don't think about it ever again.

David Gozik says this he says, Satan does not want the word of God to take root in a person's life.

A person's heart.

Like a bird swooping down and snatching a seed, he wants to remove the seed of the word from the soil of a person's heart.

This is Satan's preferred result.

He wants to keep the word from ever having a place in a person's life so that they will never be fruitful.

Satan's plan from the beginning was I'd love to fight God, but I can't go toe-to-toe with him, so I'll just fight his image instead.

And so God made people in his own image.

And he's like, I'm terrified of the big man, can't do anything there, but I tell you, they're made in his image, I'm gonna go after the image.

And so he starts attacking Adam and Eve and doing that and attacking them.

I can't attack God, but I can attack his image.

And he's trying to make them unfruitful.

He's trying to literally move them from a fruitful garden out into the nothing.

That's what he's trying to get them to do, and it ultimately works.

And C.

S.

Lewis says that Satan steals from us and steals the word from us by lying to us.

This is what he says.

He says, What Satan put into the heads of our remote ancestors was the idea that they could be like gods, they could set up on their own as if they had created themselves, they could be their own masters, they could invent some sort of happiness for themselves apart from God.

And he says, and out of that hopeless attempt has come nearly all that we call human history: money, poverty, ambition, war, prostitution, classes, empire, slavery.

The long and terrible story of man trying to find something other than God which will make him happy.

But there is no such thing.

And so what happens is like the word goes forth and wants to actually adjust and reverse all the poverty and all the wants to go forward and actually, instead of poverty, let's do generosity.

Instead of slavery, let's do like everybody's equal at the cross.

Instead of all the like it one, the word wants to move forward and actually bring life.

And Satan goes in there and is like, no, no, no, no, you don't need any of that.

You can do it yourself.

Like you don't need his words, they are stupid.

Don't listen to his words.

Those are they're irrelevant, they're culturally wrong.

Like, don't worry about that.

Just do whatever you feel like you should do, and then you'll wind up in actual freedom and actual things and see us as going.

The hopeless attempt of trying to actually make that work leads to every single empire that we would hate consistently taking shape in the world.

Satan takes the word from our hearts, replaces it with a lie that we don't need God's word, and he does that to steal from us.

His goal is the opposite of Jesus'.

Jesus' goal, he just stated that.

I want to give life, and he's like, Yeah, I want to steal all that life.

I want you emptier than you possibly could ever be, so that you want to kill yourself.

I want to torture you until you want to die, and then I want to hold you there while you suffer.

That's his goal.

And he does that by stealing the word.

The second obstacle, the second obstacle is the person who uh just has difficulty in following through.

These are the hardest people in church ministry, in my opinion.

Hard-hearted people, I'm like, I just know where you stand.

These people, these are the people that come up to me and I'm like, I just love Jesus so much.

It's so good, so excited.

I'm like, I think you think this is gonna be too easy.

Like, I think you think that following Jesus is like, I'm never gonna sin again.

I'm like, man, you just sinned.

Like, like it happened right there.

Um and so that this is what he's I'll just read the text.

This is what he says.

Others, like seeds sown on rocky places, hear the word, and at once they're like, heck yes, let's receive it with joy.

But since they have no root, they last only a short time, and when trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they fall away quickly.

These are people who resonate so deeply with Jesus' words, so much.

Like, I love Jesus' way, love everything about it, so great.

And then Jesus says, like, but agreeing with that, agreeing with me that I'm right does not bear fruit in your life.

You just agree.

That's nice.

Even the demons would call me son of God, but there's no obedience there.

To say I totally agree with Jesus' sayings, Jesus is saying that doesn't lead to fruit.

You totally agree with my way, that doesn't lead to fruit.

It's follow-through.

And these people resonate deeply but have difficulty in following through because it's more difficult than they thought it would be.

And this happens so often all the time when I talk with people and they're just a little too excited.

I'm like, you know, this comes with a cross, right?

He says, take up your cross and follow me, not like, I don't know, your pillow.

Not that we see this all the time, this this way of thinking.

Lots of people resonate that smoking is bad, but they fail at the follow-through because giving up smoking is harder than their belief that it's wrong.

This happens with diets and exercise plans.

I love exercise, this is gonna be so great.

Then you get in the gym and it's like, why is everything so heavy in here?

It's like, because you're at the gym.

It's supposed to be heavy.

They love the idea.

These people love the idea but hate the follow-through.

I love what Jesus says, I hate the follow-through.

Make tons of plans to be obedient, just never get around to it.

So they love the idea of being part of a community.

I cannot wait.

I'm gonna go to this church, I'm gonna get connected, and it's like, but it's hard, right?

It's hard to build relationships.

Everybody's different.

Some people are gonna disagree with you, and you're supposed to love them anyways.

It's hard to go through just the menial conversations of small talk.

It's difficult.

It takes a long time to build deep relationships, a lot of digging.

Like, I don't want to do the digging, I just want to have the great relationships.

It's like you're the second soil.

Like it's just not gonna happen that way.

Love the idea of fasting and prayer, that it leads to breakthrough, that darkness could be driven out fasting and praying.

And it's like, then I tried fasting and praying, and honestly, I could not stop thinking about food.

And so I just gave up on doing that thing.

Love the idea of forgiving those who hurt me.

Jesus has forgiven me.

I love the idea of forgiving everybody else, and then somebody hurts you bad, and it's like, mmm, that's too difficult.

Love the idea of being generous and letting the Lord just open the floodgates of heaven and pour out his provision upon me.

Love that idea, it's gonna be beautiful.

But I have a really hard time cutting that check, giving that money.

I can really buy some cool shoes with that.

Love the idea of reading my Bible every day.

Larry Ray, let's go.

Love the idea.

And then you get to Leviticus and you're like, I don't love this idea anymore.

Leviticus is boring.

Love the idea, but cannot follow through.

Love the idea that following Jesus is it leads to more abundance.

But honestly, sinning is just easier.

The fleeting pleasure is just easier than the long grind of faithfulness towards this thing that Jesus wants to do.

It's just too hard.

And Jesus is actually going, you're not wrong.

It is hard.

It is difficult, but the difficulty is worth it.

And those that agree with me but will not follow through will miss out on the thing that I want to give them.

Don't be mistaken.

It is difficult.

But if you press through the difficulty, you actually experience the fruit of Jesus saying, and some people just won't.

They'll they'll talk, good, good talk and not walk, good walk.

That's the second.

The third obstacle is just deceitful alternatives.

Deceitful alternatives.

Verse 18 and 19 says, Still others like the seeds sown among the thorns, hear the word.

But the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires of other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.

This is the person that struggles to believe that Jesus' way will actually lead them to fullness of life.

And so instead of like going all in with Jesus, they're like, I'm gonna do a little Jesus and a little yoga.

I don't know, I think yoga's fine, but like uh like I'm gonna do a little Jesus and then I'm gonna also do some alternative practices to get some joy and some pleasure and some love.

And like I want to do the Jesus thing, and I also want to do the world thing a little bit.

And so they just double up.

And it actually logically it makes sense.

Like Jesus like overcame the grave, that's awesome, but honestly, porn is just as good.

It's gonna make me feel great.

It's just I'm just gonna double up on some of these things.

He likes to forgive sin.

I love to sin.

This is gonna be perfect.

Love it so much.

Practicing the way of Jesus and also practicing the ways of the world.

C.

S.

Lewis says that this type of person normally just practices small sins, not grievous sins, not terrible ones.

They follow a little bit of Jesus and then just small sins that they hold on to because they're like, he's gonna bless me, and also I think this is gonna bless me as well.

He says this, he says, it does not matter how small the sins are provided, or excuse me, it does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect edges people away from the light and out towards the nothing.

The only thing that matters to the enemy is the extent to which you are separated from God.

And so murder, a huge sin, is no better than playing cards if cards do the trick.

Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one, the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

And what Jesus is saying here is like, man, there's this space where it's just the, I mean, just it's just the distractions of the world.

It's just the worries of the world.

It's just like the deceitfulness, it's not like the horrors of riches.

It's not like the murderous violence of the worries of the world.

It's not that.

It's like, I just, I just thought of this, I can't get this out of my mind.

And so instead of following the way of Jesus, I have this other distractive thing that I press into.

And so consistently, what he's saying is like, that actually doesn't matter.

Those small things don't do nothing, they actually subtly choke out the life that Jesus wants to give us through his word, and that's what he's saying.

It chokes it.

And if you're ever choked a lot, you want to get out of that thing.

Somebody pinned Teddy down one time and started to choke him and he bit the kid, and I'm like, let's go.

We don't teach that at home anymore.

Um but when you're choked hard, you want to get out of it and you realize it's happening.

But just a little bit of your airway, just a touch, to where all of a sudden your oxygen goes from whatever 97% to 90, and it's like you almost might not even notice it.

And that's what he's referencing here.

Like the life that Jesus wants to give you is 30, 60, 100 times better than what you can possibly imagine.

But what these things do is it just slowly over time, like air out of a balloon, just a little bit, just a little bit almost where you imperceptible, you can't even see it.

And that's what leads us to experience the destruction of sin and not the life that Jesus actually wants to give, because the word does not, it is actually choked out, the life is actually choked out.

And that's what he's saying.

Carson says, Because these thorns are deceitful, there is an added warning from Jesus that the thorns are so subtle that one may not even be aware that they're being choked.

You might not even know it.

And so you're thinking, I'm following Jesus' way and a little bit of my way.

And you think, this is completely fine.

And Jesus is going, that way of thinking will hinder and be an obstacle and a roadblock and a choking of what I actually want to do in your life.

And so those are the three obstacles.

He wants to give you his word to give you life.

He wants to make your life a witness unto his greatness.

That's what he wants to do.

So he gives you his word.

And then there are things that choke it out, the hardness of heart and the enemy just snagging it.

The difficulties of actually following him, that people never actually step into it and experience it.

And then every now and then people go like, maybe I could double up.

Jesus and Jesus and whatever that and is, whatever that is, it chokes out what Jesus wants to do.

And it hinders this life that he wants to give you and me.

So then he moves into how we experience what he actually wants to give us, and that's verse 20.

It says, others like seed on good soil, they hear the word and accept it.

And they produce a crop, some 30, some 60, some 100 times what was sown.

And so accept that word is important.

They hear it.

Everybody's heard it, but they hear it and accept it.

The word is uh peradecumai.

Don't normally bring up the Greek other than it's just important.

Para means with, decamai means take, and so it's to take with.

It's not just hearing, but I'm gonna take it with me.

It's actually gonna get into my life, it's gonna get into my bones, it's gonna get into the things that I do.

So it's receiving it with action.

I heard it, I received it, and it moved out of me into actual action.

It changed what I did.

It got into my mouth and it changed the way that I talked to my spouse and the people around me.

It got into my mind and it changed what I thought about.

It got into my hands and it changed what I did with my hands.

Instead of doing these sinful things, I chose to do righteousness with it.

Changed my feet and wherever my feet wanted to go.

It changed my heart towards people, changed the way I was willing to forgive.

I took the word, I received it, I took it with me, and now it's affecting, I'm receiving it with action.

So, for example, it looks like this.

First started dating Rainey, awesome.

It was great.

I uh had very little money, but the money I did have, I was just buying her gifts, just trying to shower her with love.

She's gonna love me.

It's gonna be great.

And uh she did not rece it did not go the way that I thought it would, right?

Like I was just buying her tonight.

I didn't have a ton of money, and I'm like, girl, I'm spending a little bit of dough.

I don't have, and you're I feel like it's not working.

You don't feel as loved as I feel like my bank account shows that you should feel how loved you should feel.

And then did not understand that for so many years.

We go to counseling and realize she receives love through words of affirmation.

And I was like, I've been wasting money.

She's she she received me spending money on flowers and stuff as irresponsibility.

I'm like, I love you so much, like you're an idiot.

And I was like, How is this going this way?

I don't understand.

And and so in counseling, we realized, like, oh, you receive love by words of affirmation.

And so, new new knowledge, new learning.

I just learned something about her.

If I took that knowledge and did not express it outwardly and just kept buying her flowers, I can't then get mad at her for not loving me and feeling loved by me.

I'm the one that only heard it but did not receive it with action.

And so, in the same way, what Jesus is saying is like you need to hear the truth, and then the truth has to get into your bones enough to where it shifts and moves out into the world.

That's what he's saying.

And so, in my experience, and we we had this experience on Wednesday night, in my experience, the challenge for us as Christians, so if you're a Christian, this is please listen.

Um, the challenge for you as Christians is to get stuck in this constant taking in of content and learning, just constantly hearing and learning more.

And so you go to church and you hear the Bible.

You go to Bible studies and you discuss the Bible.

You listen to podcasts, you learn more about the Bible.

Bible, Bible, Bible.

You just listen to it over and over and over again.

And we get into this idea that's like the learning is gonna make the difference.

The learning is gonna lead to the fruit.

And what Jesus is saying, hearing it does nothing.

It's not going to do that, it's or at least it's not gonna do everything.

It's not gonna lead to the fruit that we actually want.

It takes, as Jesus says, it takes the additional, not just learning it, but receiving it with action and putting it out into our world.

And so these, it's possible to never experience the fruit of our learning if we only learn but never actually do it.

So there's this awesome scene in the new Karate Kid, which is actually rather old.

Um, but in the new Karate Kid movie, there's this awesome scene that shows this idea perfectly, the idea of how Christians, in my experience, it's what it's like for Christians to just constantly hear the word.

Hear, we're just learning more about the we know so much about the Bible, we hear it all the time, just constantly hearing it, but not doing it.

So I want you to watch this first video, and then I'll explain it in just a second, but go to the first one here.

Okay.

So that was the scene I wanted you to see.

He's just practicing over and over and over again.

He's just learning something over and over and over again, and he's doing it over and over again.

And to me, as I watch that, like this is what it that's what it's like to just hear the word over and over and over and over again.

And as he's doing that, just constantly learning something, but not practicing what he's learning, it leads him to being wearied and tired and wanting to quit.

And I think so many Christians wind up in this spot where it's like, I heard the word again and I heard it again and I heard it again and I heard it on the radio, and then Caleb said something to me, and I did this again and again and again and again.

And it's like, but we because there's nothing doing, just learning and nothing doing, it leads to people going, like, I'm just I'm just wore out of this.

I don't think this has anything for me.

I know a ton, but I'm not doing anything with it.

And Jesus is saying in this particular space, Jesus is saying that learning isn't the point necessarily.

Learning is not the learning is a means to an end, it's not the end in itself.

And so to wind up in this space where all we're doing is learning, it doesn't actually lead to the fruit that we actually want.

The way that it actually don't go to the next video.

Um this it's learning plus doing.

Go to that slide there.

There we go.

That's what Jesus is getting at.

Like learning plus doing equals the fruit.

It is taking these things in and then putting them into our lives that actually leads to the fruit.

And again, I think so many Christians get ready to quit because it's like, I just, what is this even?

I'll continue going to church because I'm supposed to, but what does this actually mean for me?

I'm not experiencing any of the fruit of my labor or my learning.

And I think that's where we wind up.

There's this man named John Wimber that started the Vineyard Church movement, and uh he talks about this idea like he came to faith and started reading the gospels and was just enthralled with what Jesus said.

He's like, Jesus is doing all this stuff and saying all this stuff, and then he says that I get to do some of this stuff as well.

And he starts going to church and he's they're preaching to him and he's learning and he's learning and he's learning and he's learning and he's learning.

And then he finally is like, he goes up to the pastor, and this is the conversation he has with the pastor.

He says, So when do we do the stuff?

Like the Jesus stuff.

And the pastor's like, the stuff, what's the stuff?

Wimber says, you know, the stuff in the Bible, like healing the sick, casting out the demons, the stuff.

And the pastor was like, Oh, we don't do the stuff.

We believe that they did it back in biblical days, but we didn't, we don't do it today.

And Wimberg's confused, goes, I give up drugs for this.

Like, and I'm like, that's how people feel about Christianity.

It's like, oh, it's just a bunch of learning, like just read the Bible, and then you know it'll be great.

No, there's something in it for us that like you you learn it and then you do it.

And it's it's this space where when when this happens, it's so good you're formed, but you have to allow the form to actually move into doing and into practice.

This is why James is like, be a hearer, great, but be a doer, you will experience the fruit.

And Jesus is saying the exact same thing.

If you want to experience the fruit of his word, what he wants to do in your life, you have to actually take it in good, but it has to be received with action.

It has to go to work in your life and through your life so that you actually experience those things.

What it's supposed to be like is what we're about to see.

So play this one.

It's only two minutes long, but play it and just don't click off of it.

Okay, go.

This is what it's supposed to be like.

That's what it's supposed to be.

And I realize that's kung fu.

Following Jesus is supposed to be exactly but but go to the go to the slide.

Go to the slide.

This is where we stay.

Learning minus doing, we're wearied and frustrated and ready to quit Christianity.

Learning plus doing leads to all in wonder.

The kid's looking at his hands and he's like, What the heck did I just do?

And Jesus is going, Do you know the life that I want to present to you?

Like, do you know what I actually want to give you?

I want to lead you to a space of awe and wonder where you're going, like, can you believe I prayed and he answered?

Can you believe that I gave generously money I didn't feel like I had?

But then he did literally open the floodgates of heaven and pour out blessing in my life.

He actually wants to lead us into a space where the life of Jesus is so beautiful and so majestic and so much greater than anything else that exists in the world.

It's like I couldn't turn back if I wanted to.

It's empty out there.

But he has something for me, and it's right, it's like this is amazing.

What he's trying to do and what he says he'll do, he's like, I will give you my word, and it's filled, packed with life.

And if you will put it into your life and receive it, and then allow it to be received with action, that it leads you to step forward and turning the other cheek and forgiving those who hurt you, loving your enemies, loving your neighbor, taking every practice that he says and saying, Don't call me Lord and don't do what I say, because then you'll miss it.

Call me Lord and then do what I say, and you will experience life from me 30, 60, 100 times.

What I want to do is lead you there.

It just won't happen if we all we do is sit in church, read the Bible, all those things, and then we never actually take it from learning to practice.

We have to move from learning to doing.

This is what he wants for us.

So, three questions by way of implication.

One, and I'm gonna go fast through these because we've this is a long sermon with with video.

This is great.

One question.

Do you believe that Jesus wants to make your life a witness unto his greatness?

To the extent that you believe that he wants to make your life so great that it testifies to how great he is, if you believe that, it'll be so much easier.

Verses like, I think he just wants to make my life a living hell.

Like, no, that person does exist.

But Jesus is like, I just want you, I want to lead you into greatness.

I want to leave, I want you to be, I want your life to testify to who I am.

And he is majestic, he is high and lifted up.

He is King of Kings, Lord of Lords, He is the most authoritative one, and He deserves all honor and praise and glory, and He wants to make your life testify to that.

Do you believe that?

Second question: which soil or obstacle do you battle with at this moment?

Because, in my opinion, there are some passages of scripture that you probably love and you receive them with action.

And then there are other ones that you're hard-hearted to that Satan's stealing.

There are other ones that you find too difficult that you don't practice, and there are others that you just want to be like, I want to follow Jesus in that, but I also really would just rather do it my way.

And it's choking that thing out.

I think we're all of these at some point in our lives, and all of these it's certain things that Jesus is saying of us.

But when you can figure out which soil that you are with different passages in the scriptures, then ultimately what you figure out is like you can pray against that thing.

I see he called out the soil that I'm like.

He called it out in my life and said that I will not experience the fruit this way.

He showed it to me, and now I just want to ask him, would you help me go from that soil into a fruitful soil?

And then last, will you take your learning, all of your learning, and put it into practice?

Whether you're a student on near the front row, which come on, there I mean, I love that students are sitting in the front row.

Students sit in the front row just learning the the barely being formed into the way of Jesus, or those who have been doing this for a long time.

Learning does nothing other than get you ready for the thing that you're supposed to do and to experience.

And so he's calling you.

Will you please let me do the thing that I want to do?

I want to birth life into your in your body, into your soul, into your heart.

Will you allow your learning to lead to practice?

Let me pray.

Father, thank you for uh your word.

Jesus, thank you that you've made this the key to understanding every single thing of what you want to do in the world.

You want to lead us into life and there's obstacles.

We fight a battle against ourselves and against the enemy.

You want to lead us into life.

God, I pray that you would set it in our hearts today.

Would you give us new vision and new inspiration and just new wonder to go?

I just need to put, I've learned so much about how I should make disciples.

Am I actually making disciples?

Maybe my life would be richer if I actually did the thing that I claim to believe.

And I say that I believe.

Would you help us to move from learning minus doing and being weary to move from learning plus doing to wind up at just fruit and life and all in wonder.

Help us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

We're gonna take communion.

We know communion testifies, it is a witness.

We know that hearing and doing leads to life based on communion because Jesus heard from the Father and said, I will do what the Father tells me to do.

He goes to the cross, not just learning what the Father wants me to do, he does the thing the Father wants him to do.

His body is broken, his blood is poured out, and the fruit that came from that, the life that came from that is all of our salvations, uh, all of our sins being forgiven, our eternal destiny is being switched from condemned to saved and in salvation.

A lot of life and a lot of fruit came from one man hearing, learning, and then doing what the Father told him to do.

And this just testifies to the truth of what we just learned.

And so, as we not just learn it, but do it, we experience that life.

And so, my encouragement to you is to come receive communion.

Let's celebrate together.

Uh, if you help set up communion, please come and uh snag this and then come as you feel led.