Hello folks, this is Princess. You are listening to the
Millennial Mustard. Seed podcast.
Thanks for listening. Don't forget.
To share with your friends. That's tough.
We're in a very tough spot. I think that what we're doing
right now is a great benefit and virtue because it's an end
around between this whole corrupt informational system,
media system. We claim to believe in a God who
spoke the universe into existence and literally raised
himself from the dead, and yet we're not going to believe that
anything else exists in the spirit realm, even though His
word tells us that they do. Their bodies weren't permitted
to go to sleep like humans do. And they weren't.
Permitted to go to heaven so they wander the earth you know
I've seen the eyes turn black to.
Unknown tongues. Being spoken.
These giants would love way up in the Highland, the young
Braves. The young men would hide up in
the trees and wait for one of these 12 footers to come walking
down the path and they would jump on them and kill them, drag
them back to the village and the village would feast on the body
freedom. Then people start to get
weapons, they start to get armor, they start to build
cities, they start to fortify their cities.
Now God looks down and there's violence everywhere.
The. Battle.
This war that we are at is not against each other.
It's against these principalities and these rulers
and these archons in the high places.
It's really worthwhile to read the Bible yourself.
Fear is one of the primary drivers of mind control because
we have to take every thought captive and resist fear.
You're going to have a testimony that is a justice case against
the Kingdom of darkness. Welcome back to another mini
episode. This is Pete from the Days In
All podcast and I'm here with Rod.
Good to be here with you again Pete, enjoying these mini
episodes. That's right.
Rod, of course from the Millennial Mustard Seed podcast.
And, and he and I've been doing these many episodes for a while,
as you guys know, and we're starting something new this
time. And that is to kind of string
together a series along one topic and taking a deeper dive
in it, but in bite sized chunks in many episodes.
And this one might be 567 parts. We're not so sure yet.
I pictured 5, but I could see it going more so this was something
that boy I I'm trying to think of how it came to me exactly,
but it it felt like a Holy Spirit kind of shining a
spotlight on something that is very contentious with very
debated in Christianity. And that is the idea of eternal
security, or once saved, always saved.
And I've had my opinion, of course, as many of you I'm sure
have, on that topic, strong opinions, especially when we
look at Scripture one way or the other, because there's verses
that seem to clearly point to that and verses that seem to
admonish us to stick with our faith and make sure we finish
the race. So we're going to take a look at
this today and we're going to start with an observation that
people leave the faith of Christianity.
We see that we see people, we don't know their hearts, but as
best we can tell, for a season, maybe for years, decades even,
people seem to have all all the marks of a genuine believer.
And at some point in their life, they walk away.
And so we're kind of left with two choices for how to explain
that. The way that I always thought of
it was, well, that person must not have been a genuine
believer. They were a false convert.
They were never really saved. They were like chaff or tears
among the wheat. Another way to think of it is
they were saved, but they actually fell away due to
circumstances or things in their life.
And so we're going to kind of start this off by looking at the
parable of the sower that's in several of the gospel accounts.
Little bit of variation between the the three accounts, but more
or less saying the same thing. So Rod, can you walk us through
that for reference? Yeah, just before I do, I just
want to mention something that is pretty strong and and I don't
want to say it's an epiphany, but it.
But as I'm listening to you, Pete, I'm realizing the seasons
for building, for laughing, for crying, right that Solomon talks
about. And just the perspective real
quick to present that there's times where I think people have
assumed some have walked away from the faith because the order
or the conduct of that person's walk no longer would fit into
the mold of the church, the building, which means they're
not showing up for prayer meetings.
They must be sitting and have lost their way, right?
Or, you know, they're no longer as jolly and happy as as they
were last year. And now the gossip flutters
through the people who have nothing to else to do with their
time and but the real, genuine believer.
The relationship is happening intimately with the Lord.
Dialoguing, wrestling through concepts, questioning reality
sometimes. And so just the perspective I
want to present before I read Matthew 13 is that the outward
appearance, we can't pay too much attention to it, although
it is a good way to understand what somebody's maybe their
habitual sin or their lifestyle is because if somebody's doing
something that's just clearly wrong, like, you know, crime and
just, you know, a really sinful life.
Yeah. It's easy to call it as you see
them. But sometimes there's desert
seasons. And I just wanted to mention
that because I don't want the audience to think because I've
been through those desert seasons and I've heard the
rumors about me that, oh, he's lost it.
And he never really was in the faith.
I've heard all that stuff. And I would just silently sit
there and be like, Lord, I can't fake it.
I need you. And I'm not feeling it right
now, but I love you and I trust you.
You. Who else would I turn to?
So I just wanted that to be a little bit of comfort for a
listener out there. I appreciate that, Rod.
Thank you for kind of rounding out as we get into this with
with that caveat or disclaimer, because you're right.
As we kind of explore this, I hope that you, no one hears Rod
or myself ever say that because you're struggling with sin or
your faith feels weak that you're, you're one of those two,
you're a false convert or you've, you've fallen away.
We're not going to say that. That's up to your allegiance to
God in your heart to decide that.
So we'll try to be very clear as we as we go along here and make
the distinction that someone who falls away and there's many
scriptures that talk about someone who, who is like that is
not someone who is going through that dry season.
That's this is something different.
This is, this is like an about face.
I've had enough of you, God, whether you say it in your heart
or verbally, I'm done. I'm done with this, this faith
life that I've tried to live and I'm going my own way.
And then some people do that, you know, without saying that
audibly or even saying it in their heart.
But overtime their heart becomes callous.
So we we don't want to make the the mistake of saying that a
season of feeling low or lost or carnal means you've fallen away.
This. This would be the person that
is, for all intents and purposes, shaking their fists at
God, saying I'm done. I was going to say that like
direct rebellion, like they want the reversal of what they know
is the way, right? And so Matthew 13, the parable
of the sower, that same day, Jesus went out of the house and
sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered
around him that he got into a boat and he sat in it while all
the people stood on the shore. He told them many things in
parables, saying a farmer went out to sow his seed.
As he was scattering the seeds, some fell along the path and the
birds came down and they ate it up.
Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil.
It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow, but when the
sun came up the plants were scorched, and they withered
because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns,
which grew up and choked out the plants, and some seeds fell on
good soil, where it produced a crop 160 or 30 times what was
sown. Whoever has an ear, let him
hear. And I'll stop you right there
for a moment as Jesus tells this parable to unpack some profound
truths. And he's about to explain that
as the disciples ask, why do you speak in parables and what does
this mean? And so if we jump down to verse
18, Rod or sorry, 16, I'll, I'll add that out.
If we jump down to verse 18, Rod, can you continue with the
explanation of that parable? Absolutely, it says.
Listen then, to what the parable of the sower means.
When anyone hears the message about the Kingdom and does not
understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was
sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the
path. The seed falling on rocky ground
refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it
with joy. But since they have no root,
they only last a short time. When trouble or persecution
comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.
The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who
hears the word. But the worries of this life and
the deceitfulness of wealth choke out the word, making it
unfruitful. But the seed falling on good
soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it.
This is the one who produces A crop yielding 160 or 30 times
that which was sown. So one way we can look at this
parable is that the power of the seed is the word of God, the
truth of the gospel, As Paul said, I am not ashamed of the
gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation, right?
So, so that is inherent in every one of these seeds that are
thrown, whether it hits the rocky path, the rocky ground,
whether I'm going to say that again, whether it falls on the
path or on the rocky ground, amongst the thorns or on the
good soil. So what's the difference between
the four scenarios? The soil.
So you can think of the soil as the condition of our hearts.
The seed never makes it there at all.
Satan snatches it away. It makes it to the rocks that
have a little bit of soil there. So that seed is able to
germinate. It says the person receives it
with joy and it grows for a season, but it Withers and dies
when persecution and trouble comes because it has no root.
The roots were shallow, right? So you go through a difficult
season and you know, maybe your mom or your grandma dies before
you're able to able to handle it.
And you shake your fist at God and say God, if you were good,
that wouldn't have happened. And you walk away.
And you walk away because you didn't have the roots going
deep. You know, the seasons of life
are meant for our roots of faith to go deeper when the water is
not at the surface of the soil. This the roots have to go deeper
to find the water source to keep living.
And you can do this with your plants in your house.
If, if you water your plants everyday, you'll keep the roots
shallow, they'll have no reason to go any deeper.
But if you wait until the soil dries out just a bit, the roots
are going to have to go deeper. So this parable unpacks one
reason why someone believes for a time that seed germinates and
the plant even grows. You see a plant growing, but
then it falls away. And then the thorns is someone
who again the deceitfulness of wealth, the worries of life.
You can say the pleasure and the pain rod.
The pleasure and the pain make it unfruitful.
It's interesting to the wording of, of this section.
It says it's unfruitful. It doesn't say that it that it
withered and died. And I, I've wondered sometimes,
does that mean this person is unsaved because it, they just
didn't produce a fruit? Kind of hold that question in
your minds as you guys think about that for a while.
We're going to come back to that on another episode as we look at
Matthew 7. And then the last seed, of
course, falls among good soil. That was the heart that was able
to receive it. It wasn't hardened soil, right?
That seed was able to find water, find air, not go through
tough soil. And the roots went deep.
So it survived when there wasn't enough rain.
It survived when there was too much sun and it made it.
And I think that really explains Rod, just kind of the condition
of people that seem to have faith some that the seed never
germinates. Satan steals it away.
Maybe that's like the pearls before swine.
You could think of a street preacher and someone yelling and
swearing at them and saying I don't want anything to do with
your Jesus. That would be seed that never
germinates. Yeah.
And what's ringing a bell for me as I'm listening, Pete, is guard
your heart, for out of it flows the issues of life.
And so we're supposed to guard it, which means you're you're on
watch. And then I love what David said
in the Old Testament. He says I store your word in me
that I may not sin against you and it very much relates to the
condition of a field. If you would consider, you know
that this is how God is demonstrating the word interacts
with us. We guard it.
We store it up so that nothing prevents the yielding of good
measure in the perfect season. I'm enjoying these many
episodes, Pete, because even though I record them with you, I
listen to them myself a few weeks later.
You're kind of like, hey, I, I remember what we talked about,
but not not every detail. And it seems like it's the right
word in the right season and the right time.
So these minis are are not only good for me, but I know that
they're good for the listeners out there.
Yeah, I appreciate it, Rod. And so we're going to wrap up on
this one for now and continue with a Part 2 where we left off
talking about the difference between once saved, always saved
and eternal security. Is there a difference?
Those are often conflated as the same thing.
So with that, we'll wrap up. Thanks for listening, guys.
God bless. Goodbye.
I trusted in your word Many troubled nights, all that
darkness thought I lost my sight.
The devil shooting shots, trying to end my life.
But I'm covered by the blood, so I'm going to be all right.
I'm down one, but I'm up two. I've been down once, but it's
Love's true. I'm seeking this face, feeling
the grace. I'm running this race for
eternity. Space.
I need more love. Less tears, no more drugs, less
fears. The stress reel, the test.
Here I'm washing over everything up in my mind.
Pummel the devil. How's it feel?
You out of time. Lord God, you said you never
leave me. Lord God, you said you'd always
see me through. You'd always see me through
because these demons get to chasing after me.
Generational iniquity is everything I see when I look in
my family pictures because my baby pictures, they got me
crying like I'm just in the devil and I'm praying just real
hard in the spirit. I'm really feeling the Holy
Spirit is coming near me. I'm like Lord God be the way the
truth or life don't ever leave me.
Jesus Christ, I really need you tonight.
I'm like, Lord God, you put it on my heart, You moving in and
through me and you're erasing all the dark.
You're the way, You're the truth.
You're the lie. Lord God, you said you never
leave me. Lord God, you said, you'll
always see me through. You'll always see me through.
Lord God, you said you'll never leave me.
Lord God, you said you'll always see me through.
You'll always see me through. Yeah.
You justified the sentence to me.
I pray you don't. The penalty times I remember.
And think. About the penalty.
Desires of the heart brought rebellion, causing enmity.
Lord, you know the truth here. Despite who we pretend to be,
I'm giving you the enemy. This is what it looked like.
And This is why I took Christ. The one who gave the crook life.
Forgive me for my idol words. Every word I took life.
For times I should have stayed here.
For every step I took life. My God ain't desert me.
Chastised and mercy baptized and hurt me.
Yeah, I should have died.