60+ Luncheon - Pastor to 60+ Dave Skorupa - October 15, 2026

A very large crowd gathered around him.

So he got into a boat on the sea and sat down while the crowd was by the sea on the shore.

He taught them many things and parables, and in his teachings he said to them, Listen, consider the sower who went out to sow.

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

Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn't have much soil, and it grew quickly since the soil wasn't deep.

When the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.

Other seed fell among thorns, and thorns came up and choked it, and it didn't produce fruit.

Still, other seed fell on good ground, and it grew up and produced fruit that it creased thirty, sixty, a hundred times.

Then Jesus said, Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.

Alright, now verses ten through twenty.

When he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.

He answered them, The secret to the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those outside everything comes in parables, so that they may indeed look, but yet not perceive.

They may indeed listen, but yet not understand.

Otherwise, they might turn back and be forgiven.

Then he said to them, Don't you understand this parable?

How then will you understand all the parables?

The sower sows the word.

Some are like the word sown on the path.

When they hear, immediately Satan comes up and takes away the word sown in them.

And others are like seeds sown on rocky ground.

When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy.

But they have no root, and they are short-lived.

When distress or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately fall away.

Others are like the seed sown among the thorns.

These are the ones who hear the word.

But the worries of this age, the deceitfulness of the wealth, and the desires of other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

And like those seeds sown on good ground, when they hear the word, they welcome it and produce fruit 60, 30, 30, 60, and a hundred times what was sown.

All right, thank you, Ryan.

We appreciate that.

Let's take a look at these verses.

This is part of our chronological Bible study today, Mark chapter 4, verses 1 through 20, and then we will also take a look at some verses later in that chapter.

Mark 4:1–20

We're told that again he began to teach by the sea, and a great multitude gathered to him so that he got in a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea.

Can't you imagine that there were people in the crowd that said, Well, it's not proper for a rabbi to be teaching from a boat.

What's he doing in a boat teaching us from there?

I would listen to him, but I'm not going to listen to anyone who talks to me from a boat.

He needs to come out here and talk to me on land like a regular human being.

You know, sometimes we often will listen less to what a person is saying if we don't like the way in which we think we are receiving it.

And in Jesus' case, whenever we're hearing from the gospels, we should always remember that this is the Son of God that is speaking.

It doesn't matter where he chooses to speak from, everything needs to be paid attention to because he is who he is.

Verse 2 says he taught them many things by parables.

Now, parables, as I've already mentioned, parables are illustrative stories that usually drive home one specific point.

And we have a term that we use in preaching, we call it illustrations.

They're not quite the same as parables, but a lot of times you can drive a point home by talking a story around it rather than just coming out and saying it.

And more often than not, guess what people will remember when you're preaching?

They might not necessarily remember the great theological truth that you have shared, but they might remember that story that you told.

You know, I have in, well, we'll get to a, I'm going to give you an illustration here in a few minutes, but we're not quite there yet.

Verse 3, Jesus begins a parable and he says, Listen, a sower went out to sow, and it happened as he sowed that some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds of the air came and devoured it.

If we were telling this story in Arkansas, we might substitute bird with squirrel, but nonetheless, you would get the idea, right?

We know that when you're trying to plant something, that sometimes the animals can get in the way.

And so Jesus says that some seed fell by the wayside.

You know, when when we sow seeds today, those of you that do any kind of gardening or maybe you're planting something in the backyard, we're kind of precise with where we put the seed.

We will plow the ground or rough the ground up first and then put the seeds in it.

In the ancient world, seed was used a little more liberally.

They would throw the seed more often than not, and then plow the ground after they had thrown the seed.

And so the seeds went kind of all over the place, and some of them go by the wayside.

What is the wayside?

Well, the wayside is just that area where they're not going to be plowing the ground.

They're not going to dig things up.

And we see that the birds come and devour it.

Verse 5 says, Some fell on the stony ground.

We have stony ground here in Arkansas, don't we?

You know how I know we got stony ground here in Arkansas?

Because I've done some digging in my backyard and dug up lots of little small rocks all over the place.

Didn't have much earth.

Immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth, but when the sun was up, it was scorched.

We know something about that here as well.

It was scorched because it had no root and it withered away.

Verse 7, Jesus says that some of the seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.

Maybe you don't have thorns, but you do have something called Johnson grass and a few other varieties of weeds.

We have those, so we can understand this illustration.

It yielded no crop.

But verse 8, other seed fell on good ground, yielded a crop that sprang up, increased, and produced, some thirtyfold, some sixty, some a hundred.

And then Jesus says to them, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Now, once again, let's go back to those people that may have been hearing Jesus speak from that boat there that morning.

Imagine that this is the first time that you've come to hear Jesus speak.

You've been hearing about this man and the amazing miracles that he's worked.

You've been hearing that he has words to speak like no one else.

But your first experience with Jesus is hearing him talk about seeds and ground.

You might think, well, I think the man's a good speaker, but I was told that he was a prophet, and here all he's doing is talking about agriculture.

I learned some things about not how to waste seed, but I don't understand what he's really talking about.

Or you might have said, well, he he seems to be against birds.

I don't think he likes birds very much, but I really don't know what's going on with this man.

Why is he gathering such large crowds talking about birds and soil and thorns and all of these sorts of things?

Well, Jesus says in verse 9, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Now, in this crowd, and I'm included in this crowd as well, some of us have some challenges with hearing.

Fair to say?

Okay.

This ear's about half gone.

This one's about half gone.

This one's doing most of the work.

This one's about half gone.

And when we say, he who has ears to hear, let him hear, you might be thinking of something different than what Jesus was saying.

Jesus was not talking about your ability to process sound in a good way.

What Jesus was talking about was if you're willing to do some thinking to understand, then listen up.

It's also true to say that what Jesus was saying was, I'm not talking about soils and seeds and birds and thorns.

I'm talking about spiritual reality.

And if you're re if you're ready to listen to some things about spiritual reality, listen up.

Those of you that were here last Sunday morning and you heard Pastor Gregg's message, one of the points that Pastor Gregg made was that spiritual reality is every bit as real as material reality.

You remember that point?

That's kind of what's happening here.

Jesus is talking about spiritual reality, but he's using pictures from physical reality to make the point.

Continuing in verse 10, when Jesus was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parable.

So even though Jesus had told them, I'm speaking about spiritual things, even though he said, if you've got ears to hear, hear, they still had some questions.

You know, oftentimes when we read a parable and we read it real fast, we can miss the point that Jesus is making.

And when that happens, we should reassure ourselves that we're in pretty good company because the apostles and the disciples from time to time didn't understand what he was saying either.

So Jesus goes ahead, he doesn't reprimand them, but he does kind of make it clear to them that they need to listen a little more closely.

Because in verse 11, he says, It's been given to you to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside all things come in parables.

Have you ever had conversations with people, maybe family members, maybe friends, maybe people that you know a little bit from different activities, and you begin to talk about spiritual things and their eyes just kind of glaze over.

All right.

And in some cases, they just don't want to talk or they don't want to hear about spiritual things, but in other cases they just don't understand what you're talking about.

They just have no idea as to how to engage in a conversation about spiritual things because the way that they look at the world, everything is material world.

There is no other world but the material world.

Jesus is making it very clear that when he's talking in parables, he knows that some people aren't going to listen or understand what it is that he's communicating.

He says, all things come in parables to those that do not know the mystery of the kingdom of God.

Then he quotes from the prophet Isaiah, and he says, Seeing they may see and not perceive, hearing they may hear and not understand, lest they should turn and their sins be forgiven them.

For people who don't want to be forgiven, for people who don't want to admit that they have sin as a problem in their lives, they will not even begin the process of listening to what it is that you have to say about redemption in Jesus Christ.

For the person who thinks that they've got it all together and they don't think that they need to be saved, they're not even going to listen, even though they will hear the words that you are speaking.

They will not want to see or understand, even though they will understand that that's what it is that you're talking about.

They just shut themselves down.

Then Jesus continues in verse 13.

He says, Do you not understand this parable?

How then will you understand all the parables?

So this parable has with it some very key elementary, spiritual elementary concepts that must be understood if you are to understand other parables that Jesus speaks in the Gospels.

The sower sows the word.

Alright, so Jesus is starting to break things down.

The seed that we see in the parables represents the word.

Well, you could also say the gospel, the good news here.

These are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown.

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

Likewise, the ones sown on stony ground.

When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with gladness, but they have no root in themselves, and so they only endure for a time.

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

Now these are the ones sown among thorns.

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

But these are the ones sown on good ground.

Those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit.

Some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.

Let's stop there for a moment.

So in this particular parable, we have the seeds, we have the sower, and we have the soils.

What is the main takeaway that Jesus is trying to communicate in this parable?

Well, what Jesus is saying, first off, we can very clearly conclude that even though everyone's hearing the same message, it's not going to be received the same way by all who hear it.

You know, a lot of times we think, oh, if only that person that I'm praying for, if only they could hear the same gospel that I heard the way that I heard it.

Ladies and gentlemen, there's no guarantee that that would make a whole lot of difference.

We don't know the soil that resides in a person's heart, mind, and spirit.

We need to understand that even though the gospel goes forward, it's never the fault of the gospel that a person isn't saved.

The word is not to blame for a person's reaction to it.

Rather, what is the person's heart, mind, and spirit like when that gospel word is being delivered?

All too often we hear people say, oh, if only the preaching were better at such and such, then I know that my son, daughter, neighbor, friend, coworker, I know that they would be saved if the preaching was better.

Ladies and gentlemen, as long as the gospel is being presented correctly, don't blame the gospel on the fact that it's not received the way that you wish it were by people that are lost.

We'll talk a little bit more about that in a few minutes.

Jumping forward in Mark chapter 4, skipping over the parable of the light under a basket because it doesn't have anything to do with sower or seeds, you go to the next parable that does return to this topic, which begins in verse 26.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

Jesus said, The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.

He should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow.

He himself does not know how.

Now, this is an interesting thing.

I did a little bit of research, and I wanted to see in the 2,000 years since Jesus spoke this parable, if modern day science was able to determine how a seed goes from a dead small thing that we throw into the ground to a plant.

And modern science does have a lot to say about the process of how that happens, but it still doesn't know exactly how a dead seed begins to have energy in it which germinates into a plant.

Science still doesn't know exactly how that happens.

It's learned a lot about the enzymes that are in a seed and how water reaches those enzymes and different things start to happen, but it's the start-to-happen thing that they still haven't isolated, they still can't explain how a dead seed becomes alive and produces a plant.

Even AI doesn't know how this happens, all right?

Doesn't know.

And the honest scientists, including the National Foundation of Health, they will freely admit that they don't know how this happens, even in the year 2026.

So when Jesus says that the farmer sows the seed and then he goes to sleep and the seed is in the ground and the seed begins to grow and the farmer doesn't know how, that still applies here 2,000 years later.

The farmer can't tell you exactly how it happens.

He can tell you what he sees, he can tell you he can dig up a plant early and he can set, he can show you some results, but he cannot tell you how the dead seed becomes a live thing.

They just don't have enough information.

He doesn't know how.

Verse 28, the earth yields crop by itself, first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head.

But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come.

Now, here's some expansions and takeaways that I want you to go through with me for a few slides here.

So in verses 1 through 20, we've already talked about the fact that the same seed is thrown into all the different soils.

And that seed represents the word, Jesus himself tells us.

That represents the gospel, it represents the good news.

You know, there's a lot of people that think, oh, if we could only change the gospel.

If we could talk about receiving Jesus without having to talk about sin.

Or if it would be okay for us to talk about subscribing to the philosophy of Jesus, but let's skip all of that stuff about the virgin birth and let's ignore all that stuff about him being the Son of God.

Let's just make the gospel easier for people to receive without going into the truth of what the gospel says.

Ladies and gentlemen, gospel doesn't need to be changed.

The gospel is fine just as it is.

Never feel like you have to change the gospel in order to get people saved.

All you're gonna do is save them to a false gospel, and that's no good.

It's not the gospel that needs changing, it's people that need to be changed.

The soil needs to be changed upon which the seed is falling.

Jesus mentions, he mentions three obstacles to the seed taking root in the soil.

First, in verse 15, he talks about Satan working against the word.

And in verse 17, he talks about the idea that tribulation and persecution from the world keeps people from embracing the gospel.

Finally, he says that there are people who are too concerned with the cares of this world and riches and luxuries.

You know what?

We take the three things that Jesus said chokes off people from the gospel, and we see that it's the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Just as we have said many, many times here.

The enemies are always the same.

What keeps people from embracing the gospel?

The world, the flesh, and the devil.

Doesn't change.

Even in this story, we see that it's spelled out.

The order is a little bit different, but the same three things are in play.

If you're trying to share the gospel with someone and they are refusing to hear it, you're casting the seed, but the seed isn't taking root, examine whether it's one of these three things that is getting in the way.

You'll probably find that that's the case.

In verse 20, Jesus said, Those who hear the word accept it and bear fruit.

And bear fruit.

If you've received Jesus, then you should be producing fruit.

You should be casting seed.

You should be sharing the gospel with the world.

With other people.

You received the word so that you can share the word.

Got real quiet in here all of a sudden.

All right.

Jesus says that some who get involved in this work they reap 30fold, 60fold, some even a hundredfold.

You'll notice that Jesus doesn't say, share, shame on the ones who only produce thirtyfold.

He doesn't say that at all.

And he doesn't even praise the ones who reap a hundredfold.

How much fruit is produced by you sowing the seed is up to God, not up to you.

But God wants you to be faithful in sowing that seed even into soil where it might not bear fruit, where it might not grow.

The expectation is that everyone who is saved should see some increase.

Now I've had people after messages like this who will come up to me and say, Pastor Dave, I've never led anyone to the Lord.

I've never successfully led anyone to the Lord.

My first question after I get that type of feedback is, have you shared the word?

They said, Well, yeah, I've shared the word, but I've never led anyone to the Lord.

I said, Well, first off, good for you for sharing the word, because you're supposed to do that.

And second, you don't know if your sharing the word hasn't borne fruit because how long did you wait to see if that person responded?

Well, they didn't respond when I talked to them.

Well, wait, wait a week, wait a month, wait a year.

You may be a part of God's grand agricultural program, and you may be sowing seeds right alongside other people that are sowing seeds.

Your job is not to show, not to prove that you've produced fruit.

Your job is to be involved in the sowing of seed.

God will determine whether or not that seed is going to ignite and produce fruit.

Aren't you glad that it's not your responsibility to make somebody come to the gospel?

I lived my life thinking that it was my responsibility for a while.

Very, very early as a believer.

I thought, I've got to produce fruit.

I've been saved.

I gotta produce fruit.

I gotta produce fruit.

You know what I was trying to do?

I was trying to use the production of fruit as proof that I'd been saved.

Okay?

That's never the goal of producing fruit.

Your goal in producing fruit is not to prove to yourself that you're saved, but rather you want another person not to go to hell and go to heaven.

Alright?

Also, you're being obedient to what it is that God has called you to do.

God's called you to share the gospel.

You want to be obedient to that calling that God has given you.

Whether or not someone gets saved is not your end goal.

That's God's end goal.

Alright?

And maybe you haven't necessarily led someone in conversation to a point where they've received Jesus, but have you supported missionary efforts around the world where other people are doing that?

If you're supporting missionary efforts and someone gets saved, you're a part of that work.

You're a part of that increase.

Let's continue here.

Verses 26 and 27, Jesus continues, he in that in this other parable, he compares sharing the gospel to someone who is scattering seed.

First off, just a reminder: the one who scatters the seed, when the seed actually becomes a live thing, what's that man doing?

He's sleeping.

He's asleep.

That's something that God is doing.

All right?

He doesn't, the man doesn't know how it happens.

All he knows is that he knows he's supposed to scatter seed into the ground.

When the seed becomes alive, the man doesn't know how that happens.

You know something?

When we share the gospel and someone gets saved, it can be really easy for people to try to take credit for that person's salvation themselves.

I may have shared this before.

If I did, I apologize.

The very first church where I was called to be the lead pastor was a church in Marion, Arkansas.

It's right on the other side of the Mississippi from Memphis, Tennessee.

I lived in Memphis and I worked in Marion.

It was a 45-minute drive each way.

Put a lot of miles on the car during that time.

Well, the man who was the chairman of the deacons of that church said, It's a shame we lost our bus driver before you got here, Pastor Dave.

He was an amazing individual.

He would round up kids and bring them to church.

And I would say, Well, does he still live in the area?

They said, No, he passed away a while back.

But he had the funniest way of talking about his work as a bus driver.

Every time a kid would be saved, he would say, I saved that kid.

I saved that kid by bringing the kid to church.

I saved that kid.

And I said, and I looked at the chairman of the deacons and I said, Did you correct him in his theology?

He goes, Yeah.

I would always say, now, Jerry, you didn't save that kid.

Jesus saved that kid.

He goes, Well, yeah, I guess Jesus saved that kid.

All right.

I hope that's not the attitude of anyone in this room, that if you're helping, if you're being used by God to leave some lead someone to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, that you don't try to take credit for that.

That's like a farmer putting seed in the ground and then taking credit for the fact that something unexplainable happens and that dead seed becomes alive.

You see, this is a reminder.

This is a reminder to us that when a person gets saved, a miracle has occurred.

If you're saved, you have a miracle that has occurred in your life.

Something that was dead has become alive.

Someone did the work of scattering the seed and sharing the word with you, and the Holy Spirit made that word come alive in you, and you receive, you confess the fact that you were a sinner, you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and you are starting to change and become unrecognizable from the way you were before.

Later in this chapter, Jesus uses the parable of the mustard seed.

We're all familiar with that, right?

Mustard seed, tiny little black seed.

You can barely see it, it's so small.

And yet, if you go over to the Mideast and you look at mustard seed trees, they're some of the biggest trees that you'll see in that part of the world.

They're huge.

You can put numerous houses underneath the shade of a giant mustard tree.

When we see that seed and we compare it with that tree, it's ridiculous to compare the two because one's just this tiny speck on your finger, and the other is this giant tree.

After Jesus saves you and begins to change you and make you more like himself and less like the person you were when you were saved, likewise we ought to be almost unrecognizable as people in the way that we live our lives before Jesus and after Jesus.

That is a miracle.

That's not something that we pat ourselves on the back and say, Oh, I was so good to be obedient.

But rather we say, praise God, that He's in the changing business and has made me different than I was before.

All right.

But you know, that change doesn't happen overnight, does it?

All right.

That change takes time.

Sometimes it takes a long time.

And all too often when new people receive Jesus and they join a church, we can put pressure on them to try to abide by all the rules immediately.

Because after all, now they're a saved person.

Now they should know everything there is to know.

Now they should never step out of line.

Now they should never say anything that's the least bit off-color or anything else.

Jesus makes it a point in the parable to talk about first the blade comes up.

All right?

The blade, that small blade, that leaf.

First that small leaf comes up, then the head, and then the plant begins to grow.

It takes time.

It takes time.

And you know what happens if you put too much water on a plant?

Go ahead and say it out loud.

It's okay.

You drown the thing.

Okay?

What happens if you expose a plant to too much sunlight and not enough darkness?

Withers up, especially in Arkansas heat.

Withers up, right?

Okay?

No, the plant grows because the right amount of water is added at the right time, the right amount of sunshine is added at the right time, and it takes days, weeks, months, years to grow a plant.

And we need to be patient and caring with people that are coming to Jesus Christ.

We don't want to overwater them.

We don't want to give them too much sunlight.

We want them to grow the way that God wants them to grow.

Amen?

All right.

Let's continue.

Verse 29 says, When the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle because the time of harvest has come.

One of the things I want to point out here, the objective of the first parable and the objective of the second parable is that God wants healthy, mature believers.

A lot of times we hear the parable of the soils and we think, well, you know, the plant that got thrown by the wayside or the plant that got thrown among the thorns, it had a little bit of growth before it was choked out.

It had a little bit of growth before the sun withered it.

It had a little bit of growth before the birds or whatever.

You know, we focus so much on the plants that don't grow.

And what we do is we make the mistake of saying, maybe that's like my cousin or my friend or my uh my co-worker.

Maybe that thing that didn't grow is is like my is like that person I know.

But they did have some growth, so maybe maybe they were obedient.

The goal in both of these parables is that the plant grows to a point where it can be harvested.

God is not harvesting people where the seed did not grow.

God wants faithful, mature growth to take place.

That's the goal of these parables.

That's the goal of the parables.

So the final question to ask ourselves is are we actively sowing seed or are we seeing that as somebody else's job?

Are we involved in the work of sowing seed?

Are we sharing the gospel with people?

Are we supporting work of missionaries that are sharing the gospel all around the world to people who need to hear the good news?

Are we interested in this type of thing?

Helping God create, reap the harvest.

God does the work.

Again, God does the work.

We just need to be faithful to sharing, sowing the seed.

Let's close in prayer.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day and the time that we've had together.

We thank you for these parables.

Lord, I pray that if we are convicted about the need to share the good news with someone in our lives, that we won't be hesitant.

Even if we think that the soil isn't ready, we won't be hesitant in obeying the work to sow the seed.

Lord, we pray in advance right now for that person that we need to speak with.

We pray that you would break up that soil, that you would remove the thorns, that you would keep the birds away.

Lord, we would pray that it wouldn't wither in heat, but rather, Lord, we would just pray that you would prepare the soil of their spirit so that when we share the word, they would accept it and receive it and receive you.

And that we won't take credit for it ourselves, but will give you the honor, the credit, and the glory.

We pray this and all things in the mighty name of our Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord.

And God's people said, Amen.

A reminder next Thursday, we are at Eastside.

See you all at Eastside next Thursday.