The Parable of the People | Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 | Pastor Neil McClendon

Now, here's what happens in this culture, okay?

You have a flawed theology of man, it leads to a flawed theology of God.

Because you have to blame God for man's sinfulness because you can't say, now, here's the thing: how does God get responsible for two separate incidences, but both of them people did?

Why is God responsible for what people did?

It's like me getting up tomorrow and going to Bank of America and robbing the bank and then coming out and going, Well, this was God's will.

God's responsible.

No, no.

See, here's the progression that you have to understand.

In a world where man can do no wrong, then God can never be right.

This podcast is brought to you by Grand Parquet Baptist Church, helping people to know, enjoy, and glorify God.

For more information about Grand Parkway, visit our website at grandparkway.org.

Amen.

Amen.

Let's pray together, church.

Lord, we understand that we were made for more, so we're not going to settle for less.

Uh, we're not here for a bigger, better, more intense experience.

We're just here for the truth because it's the truth that sets us free, and you create us for freedom, not bondage.

We get into bondage because uh we live in light of our own ideas and our own understanding.

So give us understanding today, from your word and by your spirit, the kind of understanding that produces depth, and the kind of depth that produces priorities, and the kind of priorities that yield fruit.

Lord, help us to make sense today from your word and by your spirit.

We pray for these things in Jesus' name.

And everyone says, Amen.

Amen.

You can have a seat.

If you got a Bible, I invite you to take it and open up to Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

If you're our guest today, let me say welcome.

My name is Neil, I'm the lead pastor at Grand Park Way.

We're so honored you've given us one of your Sundays.

We're going through the book of Matthew, just taking time just to look and see what the Bible says and how does it apply to our life.

We're in chapter 13.

We'll read verses 1 to 9, and then we'll skip down to verses 18 to 23 because it's a unique section of scripture because Jesus tells a parable.

Matter of fact, two things happen in Matthew chapter 13.

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

Uh, number one, Jesus starts uh speaking outdoors, and then secondly, he starts using parables.

Parables are like stories he would tell.

He would say, Hey, I'm gonna tell a story about this, but I'm making a point about this thing over here, okay?

Uh and so uh he tells the parable, and then we'll skip down to verse 18, and he explains what he said.

Now, we'll talk about this in a couple of weeks, but one of the reasons Jesus starts speaking in parables, it was a it was basically an act of judgment against people who didn't understand or didn't agree with what he was doing.

And this parable we'll look at, I call it the parable of the people.

A lot of people say it's a parable of the sower or a parable of the soil, uh different kinds of soil.

Now, it's really about people.

Uh uh, but but basically, this parable is about people's receptivity to the kingdom message that Jesus has been bringing.

Now, I want to point this out, it's my responsibility as your pastor.

If you haven't made the connection yet, like the past couple of chapters in chapter 13, there's like seven parables.

Uh the past couple of chapters in chapter 13 is about people who think they have a relationship with God, but Jesus is saying, you do not.

And so let's be careful and not miss that, because it's right here in the text.

But anyway, the parable of the people, this is what the Bible says in Matthew 13, verse 1.

Matthew 13:1

Uh that same day Jesus went out of the house and he sat beside the sea, and great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and he sat down, and the whole crowd stood on the beach, and he told them many things in parables, saying, A sower went out to sow.

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

Other seeds fell on the rocky ground, and they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil.

But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away.

Other seeds fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.

Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.

He who has ears, let him hear.

Skip down to verse eighteen.

Jesus then explains, he says, Hear them, the parable of the sower.

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.

This is what was sown along the path.

After what was sown on the rocky ground, this is the one.

Notice that he didn't see this why he's not talking about the sower or soil.

He's talking about people.

He said, This is the one, this is the person who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.

Yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while.

And when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, he immediately falls away.

As for what was sown among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

As for what was sown on the good soil, this is the one who hears the word, understands it.

He indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.

Now let me say this, because I think it's important you understand this from the get-go.

They're not talking about four kinds of Christians here in this passage.

It's four kinds of people.

Only the last one is what the Bible would consider a Christian, okay?

So it's four kinds of people.

Let's look at the number one, the first person.

Uh, he's characterized by a lack of understanding.

This is why Jesus says in verse 18, he says, hear then the parable of the sower.

Uh, when anyone hears the word, the king of the kingdom, and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.

Remember, Jesus said, This is this was sown, that some of the seed that was sown fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.

Now, remember a couple weeks ago, we talked about Jesus and his disciples were walking through a grain field.

If you remember that, say amen.

You should think, now, what were they doing like walking out in someone's garden?

Uh that the paths were not around the edges of the property back then.

Like there could be a field of grain, and there would be almost like what we call sidewalk right through the middle of it, because it's shorter for people to go through than to go around.

So there were these dirt paths that had been trodden on.

People walked on a lot, and so the dirt was compacted.

And so when the farmer is sowing seed, I mean, he's got a path through the middle of his grain field, so he's sowing seed.

Some falls on this dirt that's been compacted by people walking on it for a long time.

And Jesus says, this is the parable.

I'm talking about this to make a point about this kind of person, this kind of person that lacks understanding.

They don't understand these things.

This seed falls on this hard-packed dirt.

Matter of fact, in verse 19, he says that it was sown in their heart.

The heart is a it is a place of conviction, but this person wasn't convicted.

They didn't understand it, and they didn't understand it because they could not understand it.

Now, when you say, what do you mean understand?

Now you have to understand because Jesus says this person lacks understanding.

Look at me.

He's not saying they're not smart.

When I say, oh, this person's dumb, why they don't get it?

No, he says they lack understanding.

It's the Greek word sunniomi, and it means this to set or join together in the mind.

Look at me.

It means to set or join together in the mind.

You it here's the phrase more accessible.

It like to click in your mind.

You ever like looking at something, all of a sudden it clicks, and you're like, oh, I get it, okay?

It's kind of like when I was in high school, I took my freshman year, I had to take algebra one.

And this is my confession today.

Algebra never clicked in my mind.

It did not click in my mind.

I had to take algebra one, I took it.

I took algebra two the next year with Mr.

Mackin, and Mr.

Mackin told the same lie about every four days to make his class sound more interesting.

Here was the lie.

You're gonna use algebra the rest of your life.

That's a lie from the devil's hell.

If you're a student, I want you to console yourself with this thought.

You ain't never gonna use algebra, okay?

Because I took algebra one and two in high school.

I went to junior college my first year of college, I took bonehead math, what they called it at Tyler Junior College, and my academic advisor said, Well, Neil, congratulations.

You've completed all the mathematical requirements for your degree.

And I have not taken a math class since then.

I haven't thought about it, all right?

I married my wife because she won the math award in high school, and I wanted to have smart kids.

Okay, so the only thing I hate more than algebra is chemistry.

Only class I failed in high school was chemistry.

I made it 69.

What do you give me a 70?

Uh, because I I got I couldn't get my head around quadratic equations.

Well, they got to balance that.

Who cares?

Why does this matter?

And I would say, hey, no one's gonna ask me about this in life.

They go, well, you don't know, Neil.

You use chemistry every day.

Like I have a friend named Sherry Elder.

She's a liar, she got a PhD in chemistry.

So chemistry is essential to life.

No, it's not.

It's not.

So if you're in chemistry, you're in high school, just endure, okay?

You're gonna get through it.

It never clicked for me.

And look what a winner I turned out to be.

Now, the Bible says this.

So for some people, it just doesn't click.

They don't understand it.

It's not, again, not that they're not smart, but here's the thing you gotta understand.

This person, the gospel and the commands of scripture, they don't click.

They don't make sense.

Matter of fact, it doesn't just not make sense.

It's not, it's offensive to their rational mind, and their mind's kind of angry at it, okay?

They speak in terms of like, well, they I reject the measures of Christianity because I'm an engineer and I've got a degree, and I'm uh oh, oh, okay.

But here's what you gotta understand, although say, well, like I can't believe some doctrine of the Bible.

And here's what's really happening.

The Bible talks about it in Romans chapter 8, verse 7.

Romans 8:7

It says this, for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God.

It does not submit to God's law, indeed, it cannot.

The mind that is set on the flesh, that's just that that's the way we're naturally born.

It's hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law, indeed.

It cannot.

Now, what do you mean?

It's important that you understand that this inability is not a personal choice, it's a natural outcome.

Let me say that again.

This inability is not a personal choice.

You don't like choose.

Like I find it interesting in counseling everyone.

I ask people when I first meet with somebody that doesn't go to our church or somebody that goes, but I don't know you that well, I'll ask you in our first session, hey, tell me how important spiritual things are to you.

They're like, Well, why is that important?

Because I don't want to reference the Bible if you think the Bible's a bunch of fairy tales.

Then someone told me recently, well, actually, I do think the Bible's a bunch of fairy tales.

Okay, that's great.

And he goes, That doesn't offend you.

And I said, No, it doesn't offend me at all.

You were born this way, Lady Gaga.

And he said, Who's Lady Gaga?

I'm like, Well, you're going to hell.

But anyway, I said, you got to understand you were born unbelieving.

You didn't like get a degree and then choose to not believe in God or the Bible.

You were born that way.

This is what I mean when I say that it's not personal choice, it's a natural outcome.

What do you mean?

Our nature is hostile to God because we are born, the Bible says, as unbelieving enemies of God.

And so to the person not to understand, this is a natural state of everybody.

That's the way I started out.

It did not make sense to me.

I heard it so much.

I didn't go to church as a kid, but when I was 16, I started working for a man, and he would fire me every summer when his youth group would go to camp.

This is this working for this man is what kind of tilled the soil of my heart and got me ready to hear the gospel.

Because he would say, Hey, my youth group, our youth group of my church is going to camp on this week.

Now you can't come to work that week.

And I was like, dude, I gotta make money, I gotta help my mom.

He's like, I understand.

So if you'll go to camp, I'll pay your way to camp and I'll pay your salary while you go to camp.

And I was like, You care about this a lot.

And so I would go, and my heart was, it's like putting seed on the stage.

You can water all the way.

It wasn't there.

I didn't get it.

I first time went to Glorieta in New Mexico, came back, he said, How was it?

I said, I didn't understand a word that guy said.

He said, All right, go back to work.

He said, Well, what'd you do all week?

I said I went to the prayer garden and kissed a girl from Lander, Wyoming.

She was a good kisser.

And then, because my heart was hard, I was a real sinner.

I said, Hope you got your money's worth.

And I went back to work.

I didn't think anything about it.

Next year, went to Oklahoma, camp in Oklahoma.

Horrible.

The invitation went on for like 45 minutes.

Is there anybody else coming?

Oh, shut up, brother.

Snack shack is about to close.

Came back, my boss picked me up for work because we didn't have a car.

He picked me up and he said, How was it?

It was terrible.

That's not a God, that's somebody that's hard up for friends.

He goes, What do you mean?

I said, The speaker had like a little shield bear, a little college kid who came to me during the invitation one night, pulled me aside and said, Neil, God wants winners.

You're a natural-born winner.

If you walk that aisle, five of the coolest guys in that room walked by right behind you.

What do you say?

You want to be on God's team?

And I said, I wanted to spit on him.

I just looked, what about your God?

Did you does your God care about losers?

And he looked at me and I said, Get away from me.

So I came back and my boss said, So it didn't make sense.

No, no, that's not God.

That that guy they were talking about was desperate and hard up for people to cry.

I didn't either one of those.

And my boss said, All right, go back to work.

I graduated high school.

He said, No, this is the last time you couldn't go.

Now he had tears in his eyes.

He cared about me that much.

And he said, But I'll pay your way and I'll pay your salary while you're gone because I know you help your mom with bills.

And I was like, All right, I'll go.

And that was when I understood the gospel.

And the guy that got up and spoke, I'll never forget it.

He was when he first got up, he he looked out in the crowd, he looked right at me.

I'm in the second row.

He looked right at me and he said, I usually don't preach on the first night, but some of you tough butts need to get saved.

And I said, Boy, you want some of this?

I'm just staring at him, he's just smiling.

I heard the gospel, and for the first time in my life, I understood it.

And that's when I became a Christian.

So I'm not making light of this person that doesn't understand.

Matter of fact, if you don't understand, I would say two things to you.

If you're like, well, what do I do?

Two things.

Number one, you need to have a belief about the word.

Or I said differently, a posture towards the Bible, the word of God.

Now, now I'll quote a verse here in a second from 2 Peter chapter 1, verse 19, where he talks about, he said, you would do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.

2 Peter 1:19

But before I read 2 Peter 1.19, I want to give you the context of what happens, okay?

I want you to envision.

We got any deer hunters in here?

Say amen.

Yeah, a few of you.

You're all like, oh, we don't hurt animals.

Uh I know you don't hurt animals, you rule over creation and subdue it.

Uh, but just imagine you're your dear lease here in a couple weeks, and this happens, because this actually happened.

There's an episode in the Bible called The Mountain of Transfiguration.

If you've ever heard of it, say amen.

If you know what happened there, say amen.

Okay, here's what happened for the rest of you, okay?

Jesus is hanging out with some of his disciples, and God wants them to know he is not just a prophet, a good moral example.

This is God concarni.

This is God with skin on, with meat on him.

This is the real deal.

So they're hanging out on this little mountain, all of a sudden, not making this up.

Jesus floats up in the air and he glows.

And the disciples pee their pants.

If you were at your dear least and all of a sudden Billy Bob floated up 10 feet in the air and glowed, and then and then it gets better.

God speaks from heaven in an audible voice and says, This is my son whom I love.

You would do well to pay attention to him.

Hey, by the way, if we're deer hunting at your dear least and you float up in the air and glow, you got my attention, bro.

I'm putting my gun down and going, I'm following you wherever you go.

This happens.

That's the Mount of Transfiguration, okay?

And he says, Peter says, and you can read it like first, 2 Peter chapter 1, about verse 15.

2 Peter 1 · chapter mention

He says, We were with him.

He said, first of all, we didn't follow a bunch of cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and the coming of the Lord Jesus.

He says, No, we were with him on the sacred mountain.

We were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

We heard the voice from heaven when God spoke, okay?

And we freaked out.

And then Peter pivots in verse 19.

He says, This he says, and we have the prophetic word, the Bible, more fully confirmed, to which you would do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

Now I want to draw your attention to three phrases there towards the back half.

He says, As to a you would do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.

Here's a fun fact: over the past three years, sales of the Bible have ticked up every year.

Why?

Because people are realizing that we live in a dark place that's getting darker.

And they're like, hey, where are we gonna find hope?

What are we gonna do?

How does it where do I go to my who's gonna tell me the truth?

I can't watch the news, it kind of freaks me out.

I turn on the TV.

Somebody goes into an elementary school and organ and shoots.

What kind of world?

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

So as a lamp shining in a dark place, this is what I mean when I say you have you should have a belief about the word or you should have a posture towards the Bible.

It should be like a lamp to you that shine in the dark.

Even if you're like, I don't understand.

But but but but this culture is getting darker and darker.

And there's this light on that, like this city set on a hill.

There's this lamp on a lampstand, and I'm drawn to that.

And then secondly, he says this, until the day dawns.

Until the day dawns.

What is he talking about?

Have you ever been pulled over by a cop when you were doing things you shouldn't be doing?

Say amen.

Like I'll just confess over here to my friend Larry.

Larry in high school one time, me and my friend, I was not a Christian, so don't email me students.

Pastor Neal did all this, and look, he's a good man.

Uh me and my friends were a little lubricated on the inside, Larry.

We took the labels off our bottles and we spelled out bud on the back window of my friend's truck.

And for some reasons, when the cop saw us, they pulled us over.

And and this is East Texas.

They had the big long black flashlights, and they come up there, boom, boom, on the side of the door, scare you to death, and then they shine the light right in your eyes.

And go, let me see your license and registration ID of some sort.

And I'm like, man, could you get the light out of my?

I'll be in charge of this son.

Like, oh boy.

And then he goes, Hey, hey, McClendon, you get out right now.

I'll tell you where you're going.

And so I had to get out, put my hands, spread my feet out, and put my hands on the side of the truck for whatever reason.

I don't know.

I was just spelling things out on the back window.

Now, he said, Why are you telling us that?

Because the whole time they kept shining the light right in our eye.

We're like, come on, man.

Are your eyes dilated?

Well, they are now.

Look, this is what I'm saying to you.

Don't miss this.

God's not like that.

He's not gonna pull you over and shine the light in your eyes and say, Let me see your license and your registration or your insurance.

No, look what the Bible says.

He says, as to a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns.

Now, I don't know if you know this or not, students, but the sun comes up every morning in the east.

Around six something.

But it doesn't come up all at once, like boom, turning the flashlight on in your eye.

You're like, oh my gosh, dude, what are you doing?

Take me to jail.

Just turn the light off.

No.

He says, this this uh uh the day dawns.

You know, it's darkest right before the day break, right before the sun comes up, and then all of a sudden it just kind of things get a little orangey looking, and then uh and then it's kind of uh it's a little shadow, and then it just slowly rises.

The Bible says, look at me.

It's called progressive revelation.

Some of you are here and you're like, Yeah, I don't understand.

I I come for free coffee or my wife or whatever.

That's okay.

You just keep coming and you just pay attention to the Bible as like a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns.

You see, my boss kept paying for me to go to camp because he knew the day hadn't dawned in me yet.

But right after graduate high school, I heard the gospel.

It's like the day dawned.

And then he says, Here's the last phrase I want you to see.

And the morning star rises in your hearts.

The morning star is a reference to Jesus, rises in your hearts.

He'll just you keep coming.

See, so if I don't understand, what do I do?

Two things.

Number one, you you have a posture towards the word, a belief about the word, and then secondly, you stand under the word.

You stand under the word.

You find a church that teaches you the Bible, not just what the preacher wants to talk about that Sunday or what the church has going on, but just teach the Bible, okay?

And you stand under it.

Understanding means to stand under.

Think about it like this.

If you're out like yesterday, I was talking to a couple of like a 17-year-old and a 20-year-old guy uh after the last service, they're like, What'd you do yesterday?

I said, Whatever my wife wanted.

Uh, oh man, come on.

I'm like, Yeah, you're not married, shut up, okay?

Well, that's love.

That's not love, that's marriage.

In marriage, you do things you don't want to do, but you love the person you're married to, so you do them.

Like yesterday, you know, a little cool friend come through.

My wife said, What do you want to do all day?

I said, I want to lay on the couch and watch football.

There's an 11 o'clock game, there's a 2.30 game, and there's a 6 30 game.

Is God good or what?

And then she said, out of her crooked, crazy mouth, Well, I thought maybe we could work in the yard since the weather's so beautiful.

And I'm like, what page of the Bible is that on?

And they're like, Well, what'd you do?

I worked in the yard.

Well, I supervised her working in the yard.

Yes, yes.

You say, I don't I don't get what is the deal?

But it's like if you were outside working in the yard, then it was colder than yesterday, maybe it's like 50 degrees, but you had to get some stuff done.

You're after two hours, after two hours, I don't care how many layers you got on, you're cold.

And now, have you ever been so cold you were what I call bone cold?

You're like, man, I am cold at the core of my being.

And then it's like you're outside, it's 50 degrees, but after two hours, you're freezing, you come in, you jump in a hot shower, and the first thing you do is just stand under the water, true or false?

You just stand there, you're like, oh, thank you, Jesus, that's over.

Oh, oh.

What am I saying?

I'm saying that if you're here and you're like, yeah, I don't quite get this.

It just doesn't make sense to me.

You just keep looking at me.

You keep standing under the word, and it will thaw you out from the inside out.

He's not gonna shine a bright light in your eye and go, hey, hey, you little sinner.

No, you just stand under the word, it will do the rest, okay?

So that's the first person.

Secondly, the second person, look at verse 20, this person lacks depth.

They have emotion, but they lack depth.

What do you mean?

And Jesus talks about him.

He said the other seeds fell on the rocky ground where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, but since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away.

This person starts out really fast but doesn't finish, okay?

This is the person who immediately responds to everything with great enthusiasm and emotion.

They receive it with joy.

They're always starting and never finishing.

What do you mean?

It's the person that comes to that signs up for a midweek class, comes to two, and never comes again.

Signs up for ladies' Tuesday Bible study, comes to two or three, and then it rains.

We should stay home.

They're in a great 20-yard dash.

Or I say it like this: they have a life cycle of which God is a part, but they do not have a life over which Jesus is Lord.

Let me say it again.

They have a life cycle, and God's a part of that, but they do not have a life over which Jesus is Lord.

What they experience is never Christianity, it's just their efforts and their attempts to live the Christian life.

And so this second person lacks depth, which is why I say often that the crying need of the church in America is not for more people, but it's for deeper people.

Let me say it again.

I'm not saying I want more people to come to the church.

That's y'all's responsibility.

You tell people, you invite people.

But the crying need of the church in America is not for more people, it's for deeper people.

It's people like my boss, Mr.

Sewell.

He was a deep man.

He never quoted the Bible to me, he never preached to me.

He said things like, Boy, I'll tell you what, paying for you, paying for you to go to camp and paying your salary is the best investment I ever made.

And I was like, You don't understand money, bro.

Yeah, he did.

I was just an idiot.

I was 17 years old and full of myself and just stupid, okay?

But when I say that the growing need, here's why.

Look at verse five and six.

There's this progression, okay?

The progression to the problem is this.

He says, first of all, it did not have much soil.

And because there wasn't much soil, there was no depth of soil.

And because there was no depth of soil, there's no root.

Plants are nourished from the roots up, not from the fruit down.

And so without much soil, you can't have depth of soil.

Without depth of soil, you cannot have roots, but roots are where you draw up nourishment.

This is why in Colossians chapter 2, about verse 6 or 7, the Bible says this just as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him.

Colossians 2 · chapter mention

And notice this next word: rooted and built up in Him, and overflowing with thankfulness.

The first step in the Christian life is a downward step.

It's you get rooted.

It's not you run out here and you receive something with joy, you hear something, or you listen to a podcast, you're like, whoa! No, no.

Look at verse 20 and 21.

I want to draw your attention to a phrase here we have to understand.

Jesus is explaining the parable, he says, that's what was sown on the rocky ground.

This is the person who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, and yet he has no root in himself, but he endures for a while.

And when tribulation and persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

That's the phrase I want you to understand today.

Immediately he falls away.

Let me be clear.

This does not refer to a person who loses their salvation because that's impossible.

Instead, this person is found out to have never had a genuine salvation experience.

Falls away is the Greek word scandalizo.

Now, I think I've said this is the Greek word two or three times in this sermon.

Here's why I say that, because the Bible was originally recorded in Greek.

Okay, part of it in Arabic, but most of it in what's called common or koine Greek.

And it's not very sometimes it's helpful.

Sometimes it's just preachers showing off, but I think it's helpful in this case because I'll give you the definition right out of the Greek textbook.

I brought it with me.

Here's what scandalizo means to fall away is scandalizo.

Here's what it means.

Here's this definition: to cause a person to begin to distrust and desert one whom he ought to trust and obey, to be offended in one, to see in another what I disapprove of, and what hinders me from acknowledging his authority.

One of the things that that we'll leave that up there.

One of the things that hinders people from acknowledging God's authority, or in that first part, they begin to distrust and desert this God who they should trust and obey is things like what happened in Oregon this past week in that little elementary school.

People are like, Are you kidding me?

Or my wife and I were talking and she said, Yeah, uh Billy Crystal, I don't know if you Billy Crystal, the actor, has a podcast and he kind of asked people, I think it's called 900 Sunday or something, but he asked people uh about their spiritual beliefs and stuff.

And one people he was talking to flipped it back on him and said, What about you?

And he said, After the year I had, I don't talk to God anymore.

And they were like, ooh, that's falling away.

That's him just kind of going, now, now, now, the year he had, and I'm not making a lie, horrible, horrible.

Like, first of all, in 2025, January the 7th, his house burned down in the Palisades fire.

And then later on that year, his son, well, I mean, his best friend Rob Reiner was killed by his own son.

Now look at me, okay?

We're gonna think just for a little bit.

Those two things have this in common.

There's a 29-year-old man that started the Palisades fire.

So a man did that, and a man took the life of his best friend Rob Reiner.

Now, here's what happens in this culture, okay?

You have a flawed theology of man, it leads to a flawed theology of God.

Because you have to blame God for man's sinfulness because you can't say, now, here's the thing: how does God get responsible for two separate incidences, but both of them people did?

Why is God responsible for what people did?

It's like me getting up tomorrow and going to Bank of America and robbing the bank and then coming out and going, Well, this was God's will.

God's responsible.

No, no, see, here's the progression that you have to understand.

In a world where man can do no wrong, then God can never be right.

In a world where God can never be right, then God's responsible for all wrong.

In a world where God's responsible for all wrong, then that God cannot be trusted.

Y'all are like, okay, that was a lot.

Let me say it again.

There's just listen to the progression of it.

This is how it happens, because again, if you have a flawed theology of man, if you say, well, man's inherently good, that that then how do you explain all the bad?

Well, you have to blame God.

So here's what happens in a world where man can do no wrong, then God can never be right.

And when God cannot be right, then God's responsible for all wrong.

And then when God's responsible for all wrong, then that God cannot be trusted.

See, we need, again, not more people, we need deeper people, people that think a little bit.

Like you say, like, okay, it's great.

I want to be a deeper person.

How do I go deeper?

Great.

You're gonna be so glad you shaved your legs for this, ladies.

Here's three things you could do to become a deeper person.

Number one, suffer well.

There's two responses in the room right now.

Y'all that have been through some stuff, you're like, oh yeah, absolutely.

Y'all that like listen to podcasts and read 28 pages of every book you've ever bought, you're like, suffer.

No, thank you.

Yes, you have to learn to suffer well.

Look what the Bible says here in verse 21.

And yet he has no root in himself, no depth to his being.

He endures for a while, but when tribulation and persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.

He is scandalized by the experience of suffering.

Now, when I say suffer well, the Bible uses two words, tribulation and persecution.

Tribulation is just natural stuff, just hard stuff that happens, okay?

Persecution and that's people stuff.

And you're gonna experience both in this world.

You're just going to, okay?

You gotta learn to suffer well if you're gonna be a deeper person.

Secondly, you gotta you gotta experience solitude.

Solitude means nobody else around.

It creates space in you for the things of God and it exposes the space in you taken up by everything else.

Thirdly, you you gotta experience silence.

This turns down the volume on the unnecessary and allows you to hear the necessary.

One of my concerns about our younger generation, our students, is that they were born with airpods in their ears.

And my kids, yeah, they'd be doing homework.

I'd go in there, they got airpods in.

I'm like, hey, what are you listening to?

I'm listening to music while I do homework.

Why?

Remember a long time ago your parents would tell you, turn off the radio, turn off the TV, and do your homework?

My kids, they have music going on, they're listening to a podcast and they're doing homework.

I'm like, what?

Y'all need to learn to be quiet.

Well, yeah, when I get quiet, my mind's not right.

That's your problem.

Yes.

Yes.

You when's the last time you spent deliberate time in silence?

And here's my question: what are you afraid of hearing?

Why you always gotta have stimulation going on?

Something happened in the background.

We can't go to sleep at night.

We pay money for machines that produce white noise.

I'm like, what?

Again, if you want to be a deeper person, silence is loud.

It is very loud.

And let me just warn you, okay?

Now we're on to the third person.

The third person, Jesus says, in the beginning up there, Jesus says this.

He says, Hey, uh, other seeds fell on the good soul.

Um, excuse me, back up.

He says, uh, and since they had no root, they withered, other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.

Just one sentence.

Look at verse 22.

Now, this third person lacks priorities.

Look at verse 22.

Jesus expounds a little more.

He says, After what was sown among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

You do know that everything in this life is designed to choke the word.

It's just slowly just kind of squeeze off the air supply, the one thing that will set you free.

This third person lacks priorities because of two things.

Number one, the cares of this world.

The cares of this world.

You cannot live in this world and not have some cares or concerns.

By the way, uh the five things, I looked it up this week, five things that people in America currently worry about the most, and I brought you the list.

Number one, money and financial stability.

Number two, health and well-being.

And number three, get ready, macroeconomics and global instability.

Y'all like, not me.

Yeah, when you're pumping that gas and it's four dollars a gallon, you're like, why do I why does a straight of whore moves affect what price gas is?

And who are the hooties?

What do they got going on?

That that sounds like a band from the 90s, okay?

What do we got going on?

Enter the Wu-Tang clan.

What's going on here?

No, yeah, that's macroeconomics and global instability.

Here's the fourth one: relationships and social judgment.

I I thought that was not very clear, so I just wrote out there, what others think.

Yes, yes.

I told somebody, and I and I always tell people this in faith, when I tell students this in counseling, they look at me like, dude, you've not been to the 10th grade.

I'm like, oh, if I could go back and do 10th grade all over again, I'd come to your school tomorrow.

Here's what you gotta do.

You gotta get up every day, and you gotta give people the opportunity to accept or reject the most authentic version of you.

Yes.

Y'all are too busy trying to find true love.

You wanna find true love, find your true self.

You find you wanna find your true self, find your true God.

Don't worry about true love.

You don't need to find true love in the tenth grade.

Are you crazy?

Go back and look at the pictures of the people you went to school with in the tenth grade and see what they wrote in your yearbook.

You'll be like Garth Brooks.

I thank God for unanswered prayer.

Oh yeah.

And here's the last one: failure and the future.

That's a lot, that's the fifth thing we're worried about.

Failure and the future.

This kind of stuff gets a majority of our thoughts and our emotions, gets in our headspace.

And when this gets in your head space, God is relief.

He's not the truth.

And here's what it sounds like yeah, yeah, yeah.

God and Jesus, God and Jesus, but this is the real world.

Okay.

Maybe ask it like this: how does the gospel speak to what you worry about?

How does the gospel speak to what you worry about?

See, it it it the Bible says that the word is choked out because the people, uh, the the cares of this world, and then secondly, the deceitfulness of riches.

How does money deceive us?

Now, by the way, you don't have to have money to be deceived by money.

I think the people that are most deceived by money are people who don't have it.

Because you do dumb stuff to get it, like you steal from other people, you lie, you have a Ponzi scheme, a pyramid scheme, all this stuff going on.

Uh, money is rarely passive, it promises far beyond its function, okay?

If I had this, I would be this, okay?

Wealth promises security, significance, and satisfaction, and yet it cannot deliver, which is why it's deceitful, okay?

Or, as that great theologian Jim Carrey, the actor said, he said, I think everybody should get rich and famous and have everything they've ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer.

Yes.

I saw him interview when he said this, and he was like, he was talking to the lady and he said, I wish everybody.

Because she said, You know, you've made it, you're rich, you make$20 million for per movie.

And he said, Yeah, I think everybody should get rich and famous, have everything they ever dreamed of.

And the lady's like, eh! And then he turned on her and said, So they can see that that's not the answer.

Why?

Because there's a deceitfulness to riches.

Now, listen very carefully, okay?

All right, riches is the Greek word plutos, and it refers to an abundance of external possessions.

An abundance of external possessions.

Look at me.

I let me be clear, cards on the table, okay?

I don't care how much you possess, I don't care if you got one home, two homes, four homes, fourteen homes.

I can care less.

I can care less.

Matter of fact, this is gonna get me kicked out of the preacher club.

I don't think it matters.

Yeah, like, what are you talking about, Willis?

Yes.

Again, riches here is an abundance of external possessions.

See, you've got we become deceived by riches when we look to money to do what it can never do.

And when you do that, the air supply to everything essential gets choked out.

Instead of piling on people that you think are rich, how about this?

How about we just say, hey, the way you keep this from happening is that you and I have an abundance of internal possessions that kind of are the ballast for everything we possess externally.

Or I say it like this in counseling: you need to have more ballast than you do cargo.

You know what ballast is?

Ballast is the weight you put in the bottom of the ship that keeps it from tipping over.

Like I watch a show, it's it just the season just ended.

It was really sad.

A guy died in the season finale.

Uh uh, but it's about these crab fishermen.

What's it?

Deadliest catch.

And I'm just like, oh man, how long is that and how much money do you make?

Because I think I'd like to do that, like on a sabbatical, just go work on a crab butt with real sinners.

It'd be like being in an elder medium, except it involves crabs.

Uh yeah, yeah, it this is great.

But it but I mean, the seas are and the captain will go, oh, you got it all on the rail, on the rail.

But here's the thing that ship has ballast in the bottom of it that keeps it from tipping over.

If you've got ballasts at the center of your life in the bottom of your life, it doesn't matter how much cargo you have.

Let's stop wasting our life trying to go, oh well, that person's got this, and this person's got this, and that.

Listen, riches is external possessions, wealth is internal possessions.

Like I have a friend, probably four or five years ago we were having lunch, and he's very wealthy.

Uh, but he said to me, he said, Neil, the difference in you and me, he said, I have money, but you're rich.

And I said, You're right.

You're not a rich person.

You're you're, I mean, I feel sorry for you, but you're not a rich person.

You have money, and he said, I want you to help me think just differently, better, maybe about money.

Uh, he said this, but I thought it was great.

He goes, Sometimes I have lunch with you and I don't like it.

And I said, Wow, okay.

Is that a bad thing?

He goes, No, I mean, I go home and I kind of complain to my wife.

Oh, wait a minute, what do you do?

He goes, I go home and I complain to my wife about you.

What are you like, 14?

And he goes, and my wife looks at me and says, You know why you don't like him?

Because that's the truth.

No one tells you the truth.

You everybody bows down to you because you have money.

We have money.

No one tells us the truth, honey.

And I went, Yeah, your wife is right.

I mean, I don't I don't treat you differently because you have money.

And he says, So, listen, can you send me some questions?

Because sometimes you say stuff at lunch, I leave not liking you.

I said, Okay, well, welcome to being an adult.

And so he said, Would you send me some questions to help me think clearly about money?

Because I I told him, I listen, I'm not trying to be a jerk, but I did say, hey, if the most interesting thing about you is your money, you're probably not very interesting.

He goes, Yeah, that that ticked me off.

Does that not make sense?

It's like if you come up to me and start talking about your kids, if the most interesting thing about you as an adult is your kids, they're not very interesting.

I got kids, I can tell you all about them, but I mean, they got their own lives, they have emancipated.

Daddy, about two semesters from getting a raise up in here.

Yeah.

And so he said, hey man, could you so I send me a list of questions?

These are diagnostic questions to help us think clearly about money.

I'll just rip them off here.

Uh uh read them all.

Number one, do you think more money would make you happy?

Here, here's my depression.

Oh, here's my no, sometimes I do.

Sometimes I think I would like to just go there and see.

I mean, I don't think it would, but can we just visit there for a couple of weeks and just see what it feels like?

That's just me being honest.

I love Jesus, okay?

Uh, but I do think, well, you know, it wouldn't hurt.

Uh I'm just, is that too honest?

Um uh here's another one.

Do you use money to control people so you can get your way?

Uh thirdly, do I see money as a means by which I get what I really need?

Fourthly, do I believe I am more deserving than those who have less or more?

Am I stingy or have I grown in the joy of generosity?

Does being generous still humble you?

Now, my friend wrote me back and he goes, I don't get that one.

I got all the other ones, and I don't want to have lunch with you for a while because I'm kind of ticked off.

And I wrote back, grow up, you cry baby.

He goes, All right, how about lunch on Tuesday?

Okay.

But does being generous still humble you?

Here's what I mean by that.

When you're able to use money to bless other people or help or meet a need or whatever, does that puff you up or does it just cause you to bow down and go, oh God, thank you so much.

This happened, that deal closed to be so we could leverage the kingdom here.

Am I content to be anonymous in my giving, or do I like people knowing?

Do I manage well what I've been given and can I enjoy it guilt-free?

Hey, if you've got a couple houses, you got like a beach house or a cabin in Colorado, you shouldn't feel guilty about that.

If you feel guilty about that, sell it and stop feeling guilty.

Or figure out why you feel guilty, because that's not God's will, you feeling guilty.

Can you just enjoy it guilt-free?

Whose reputation grows as my money grows?

Can I meaningfully experience all that I possess?

In my hands, is money a weapon or a tool?

And so after about two days, I got an email from my friend back and he said this the more I read over these questions, the more my anger towards you grows.

And I wrote back and I said, Hey man, can you just shut up?

Just hush.

Uh, here's the fourth person.

We'll be done.

You still with me?

Look how simple this last person is.

Look at verse 23.

Ask for what was sown on the good soil.

This is the one who hears the word and understands it.

He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case, a hundredfold, in another sixty, and another thirty.

Okay, here's the progression.

This person has understanding.

This understanding produces depth.

This depth informs their priorities, and these priorities yield fruit.

You should ask yourself do your life priorities yield fruit?

Hear the progression again.

This person has understanding.

It all starts with understanding.

This person has understanding.

Listen to this.

Bearing fruit is never the goal.

Bearing fruit is the byproduct of having the right goal.

And the right goal starts with understanding.

This person has understanding.

This understanding produces depth.

This depth informs their priorities, and these priorities yield fruit.

Okay?

It starts with understanding, then depth, and priorities, and as a result of this process, 30, 60, 100fold.

You cannot not produce fruit when you have these things in order.

Okay?

So let me make it clear.

This is not four kinds of Christian.

This is just one kind of Christian.

This fourth person is the believer in this passage.

You say, What do you mean?

Because the Bible cannot fathom a non-fruit-bearing Christian.

John 15, 8, Jesus says, It's my Father's glory that you bring forth much fruit.

And in so doing, you prove yourselves from my disciples.

Proof that I am a disciple is that my life produces fruit.

Okay?

It's just the way it happens, it's the way God set it up.

And so it all starts with understanding.

So let me just ask you this simple question and we'll be done.

Do you if it all starts with understanding, then you have to ask yourself, do you understand what you heard today?

Yes or no?

Then, okay, do something with it.

Because if you have understanding, and that understanding produces depth, and that depth informs your priorities, and these priorities yield fruit.

It's not hard, but it all starts with understanding.

Let's pray together.

If you're a guest, just relax.

We like to teach the Bible, then we give you some space to think about it.

And this is that time and space.

Just take a minute or so and just kind of, okay, Lord, what I had my name on it today.

What's the thing you want me to think about?

Where where do I find kind of feel pinched?

Where do I feel encouraged?

Where do I feel invited?

The questions come on the screen.

Don't try to write them down.

You can take a picture.

We'll talk about them in our community groups.

Right now, let's just think.

God, that's our prayer.

We want to be people for whom the high king of heaven is the treasure of our heart, the thing we value the most.

And so, Lord, thank you for understanding it's ours.

Every time we hear the word talk, we have an opportunity to get understanding.

And so we're humbled today by what we got to understand.

And now we get to apply it to our life.

May this understanding produce depth in us, and this depth inform our priorities, and those priorities produce fruit.

If the priorities of our life are not producing fruit, then we need different priorities.

We understand that, and we'll act on it in Jesus' name.

And everyone said, Amen, amen, amen.

Thank you for listening to this message.

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