1 00:00:09,260 --> 00:00:12,100 So friends, today's teaching scripture comes from Matthew 2 00:00:12,100 --> 00:00:18,540 chapter 13, verses 1 to 9. It says that same day Jesus went 3 00:00:18,540 --> 00:00:21,260 out of the house and sat beside the sea. 4 00:00:21,700 --> 00:00:24,620 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a 5 00:00:24,620 --> 00:00:27,900 boat and sat there. One things in parables saying, 6 00:00:27,980 --> 00:00:31,180 Listen. A sower went out to sow, and as 7 00:00:31,180 --> 00:00:34,780 he sowed some seeds fell on a path, and the birds came and ate 8 00:00:34,780 --> 00:00:38,260 them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground 9 00:00:38,460 --> 00:00:41,900 where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly 10 00:00:41,900 --> 00:00:45,780 since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were 11 00:00:45,780 --> 00:00:48,900 scorched, and since they had no root they withered away. 12 00:00:49,660 --> 00:00:52,940 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and 13 00:00:52,940 --> 00:00:56,180 choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil 14 00:00:56,300 --> 00:01:01,460 and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some 60, some 30. 15 00:01:01,980 --> 00:01:06,420 If you have ears, hear. This is the word of. 16 00:01:10,260 --> 00:01:15,340 The Lord, the comedian Pete Holmes once said there are some 17 00:01:15,340 --> 00:01:22,020 truths that are so big they can only be told with lies. 18 00:01:25,100 --> 00:01:27,940 The reference here is to a metaphor. 19 00:01:28,060 --> 00:01:29,740 That's what he's talking about. That's what he means. 20 00:01:29,740 --> 00:01:35,260 He says metaphor means always true, sometimes happened, 21 00:01:37,380 --> 00:01:41,140 generally speaking. Actually, most metaphors don't 22 00:01:41,380 --> 00:01:46,740 happen in the most literal plain day-to-day sense. 23 00:01:47,580 --> 00:01:52,620 Metaphors are not true. Time is not money. 24 00:01:54,020 --> 00:01:59,260 Life is not a box of chocolates. And despite Billy Shakespeare's 25 00:01:59,260 --> 00:02:01,660 claim, all the world is not a stage. 26 00:02:02,900 --> 00:02:08,500 And yet somehow, as I say this to you today, something within 27 00:02:08,500 --> 00:02:13,060 me twists up like but those things are true. 28 00:02:13,060 --> 00:02:14,980 There's something that's importantly true about those 29 00:02:14,980 --> 00:02:16,620 things. You can't say that's not true. 30 00:02:19,020 --> 00:02:23,420 And the truths that are in those statements that that time is 31 00:02:23,420 --> 00:02:25,900 money and the and the life is like a box of chocolates. 32 00:02:27,300 --> 00:02:32,020 They're hard to convey. In another sense, I took a swing 33 00:02:32,020 --> 00:02:34,100 at it. OK, so here's time as money. 34 00:02:34,460 --> 00:02:42,580 But in a literal sense, OK, the time that we spend, although we 35 00:02:42,580 --> 00:02:47,740 have to acknowledge that spend here is a metaphor, could 36 00:02:47,740 --> 00:02:52,180 potentially be time that we are being paid a wage or, or if we 37 00:02:52,180 --> 00:02:56,380 spend less time on a task and that task has a remunerative 38 00:02:56,620 --> 00:03:00,100 commercial value, we could earn more money by being more 39 00:03:00,100 --> 00:03:05,580 efficient with our time. Or we could say, even if we are 40 00:03:05,580 --> 00:03:11,380 not literally making money a metaphor, our time has some 41 00:03:11,380 --> 00:03:12,940 other kind of value that can be recognized. 42 00:03:15,340 --> 00:03:17,300 Rolls off the tongue, doesn't it? 43 00:03:18,140 --> 00:03:20,260 Delightful. Why don't we just say that 44 00:03:20,260 --> 00:03:22,860 instead? It's exhausting. 45 00:03:24,820 --> 00:03:29,380 And when you say it, when, when I crush that nonsense out, it 46 00:03:29,380 --> 00:03:31,180 doesn't even seem true or right, does it? 47 00:03:31,180 --> 00:03:33,220 Like you find yourself. I find myself like, wait, wait, 48 00:03:33,220 --> 00:03:34,820 what are you even talking about right now? 49 00:03:35,260 --> 00:03:39,620 Whereas when I say time is funny, we can get a sense of 50 00:03:39,620 --> 00:03:42,020 what that means. Although there are literal ways 51 00:03:42,020 --> 00:03:46,100 in which it is not true, there are important ways in which it 52 00:03:46,100 --> 00:03:48,220 is. I couldn't even say it without 53 00:03:48,220 --> 00:03:53,100 saying other metaphors. So metaphor is baked into our 54 00:03:53,100 --> 00:03:55,140 language. Baked. 55 00:03:57,340 --> 00:03:59,940 I'll stop. Especially around things that 56 00:03:59,940 --> 00:04:05,980 are abstract or complex. When we find places where plain 57 00:04:05,980 --> 00:04:09,660 language fails us, we turn to metaphor. 58 00:04:10,780 --> 00:04:12,860 We need something more out of our language. 59 00:04:12,860 --> 00:04:17,220 So why is this? Why do we need lies for our deep 60 00:04:17,220 --> 00:04:20,420 truth? Why do we need stories and 61 00:04:20,420 --> 00:04:25,380 metaphor? And it's because in the reality 62 00:04:25,460 --> 00:04:32,380 of what it is, to be truly human is something more than the 63 00:04:32,380 --> 00:04:35,300 plane. There's something more to us, to 64 00:04:35,300 --> 00:04:40,500 who we are, to what we are. It's so clear that even writers 65 00:04:40,500 --> 00:04:44,260 and thinkers who are outside any faith tradition see it. 66 00:04:44,420 --> 00:04:48,660 My very favorite author, Terry Pratchett of the Discworld 67 00:04:48,660 --> 00:04:53,380 series. Thank you. 68 00:04:54,980 --> 00:05:01,380 A scrupulous atheist. And yet he writes in his book 69 00:05:01,380 --> 00:05:07,060 Hog Father, which is about Christmas, obviously, he says of 70 00:05:07,060 --> 00:05:12,340 humanity that humans are in the place where the falling Angel 71 00:05:12,900 --> 00:05:18,420 meets the rising ape, and there's something true about 72 00:05:18,420 --> 00:05:22,100 that and what it is to be human. I think this one forgets at 73 00:05:22,100 --> 00:05:26,380 something the very important that we are neither beasts, we 74 00:05:26,380 --> 00:05:30,460 are not just animals, neither are we beings of pure spirit 75 00:05:30,460 --> 00:05:34,180 hovering above the world, right? There's something integrated, 76 00:05:34,180 --> 00:05:36,980 something about those things smashing together. 77 00:05:37,260 --> 00:05:41,540 We are in skin and we are imbued with spirit. 78 00:05:42,140 --> 00:05:47,340 We see this in the Scripture. Genesis 2 verse 7 says the Lord 79 00:05:47,340 --> 00:05:54,620 God formed man from the dust. He embodied humanity and 80 00:05:54,620 --> 00:05:59,780 breathed into his nostrils. The breath of life imbued that 81 00:05:59,780 --> 00:06:03,740 body with the spirit, and the human became a living being. 82 00:06:04,500 --> 00:06:09,620 So we are not just one thing, we are a complicated and abstract 83 00:06:09,620 --> 00:06:13,420 thing, a thing that cannot be talked about without metaphor. 84 00:06:13,420 --> 00:06:18,260 We need metaphor for the big stuff and to begin to understand 85 00:06:18,260 --> 00:06:23,420 concepts that are bigger than the frame of our mind, right? 86 00:06:25,340 --> 00:06:28,260 Really complex and the really important things need metaphor. 87 00:06:28,860 --> 00:06:34,780 One of these things is God. This is where the Jesus is the 88 00:06:34,780 --> 00:06:36,420 correct answer to the Sunday school question. 89 00:06:36,900 --> 00:06:43,820 God is a place, a person who desperately needs metaphor to 90 00:06:43,820 --> 00:06:47,660 begin to have any understanding. In his book A More Christ Like 91 00:06:47,660 --> 00:06:55,540 God, Bradley Jersack writes a a God who is real and alive must 92 00:06:55,540 --> 00:07:00,900 exist beyond my own puny understanding, bigger than any 93 00:07:00,900 --> 00:07:03,780 box in which I try to contain him. 94 00:07:04,620 --> 00:07:08,940 There's just no way that God, the creator and sustainer of all 95 00:07:08,940 --> 00:07:13,500 existence, can be explained and understood in plain language. 96 00:07:14,700 --> 00:07:18,180 It's he's just too big. If you could, if you could hold 97 00:07:18,420 --> 00:07:20,740 God in a tiny box, what kind of God would he be? 98 00:07:20,740 --> 00:07:23,740 Would you want your God to be in a little box? 99 00:07:25,300 --> 00:07:31,940 Does that make any sense? God knows that we can't 100 00:07:31,940 --> 00:07:37,740 understand God very well. And so God has made it his 101 00:07:37,740 --> 00:07:42,860 business his way throughout the history of humanity to be 102 00:07:42,860 --> 00:07:48,500 seeking us all the time. God doesn't say you come to me 103 00:07:48,500 --> 00:07:51,340 and understand. God says, let me break this down 104 00:07:51,340 --> 00:07:52,780 for you. Let me explain. 105 00:07:53,580 --> 00:07:57,540 He starts in the Old Testament with some common sense, a lot of 106 00:07:57,540 --> 00:08:00,700 common sense rules, like here's how to try not to be a terrible 107 00:08:00,700 --> 00:08:03,900 person a little bit, like just try to get a little bit of what 108 00:08:03,900 --> 00:08:06,740 I'm talking about in here. Hey, treat the stranger like 109 00:08:06,740 --> 00:08:07,980 people. How about that? 110 00:08:07,980 --> 00:08:10,580 Let's just take a swing at it. Just understand a little bit 111 00:08:10,580 --> 00:08:14,460 because God in his character is a welcoming God, right? 112 00:08:14,900 --> 00:08:19,620 And so ultimately, God knows that even in the words and the 113 00:08:19,620 --> 00:08:23,500 stories and the miracles, the ways he shows up in the Old 114 00:08:23,500 --> 00:08:29,180 Testament, he cannot be known as well as he could most fully be 115 00:08:29,180 --> 00:08:33,380 known, right? What's the best way for a human 116 00:08:34,020 --> 00:08:36,580 to get a sense of who another person is? 117 00:08:37,179 --> 00:08:39,740 It's for them to show up in person, right? 118 00:08:40,380 --> 00:08:47,940 And so God comes as Jesus and is embodied himself and lives and 119 00:08:47,940 --> 00:08:49,660 walks among us. Amen. 120 00:08:50,820 --> 00:08:53,740 There's a ton of scripture about this Hebrews. 121 00:08:54,260 --> 00:08:56,300 Well, you're going to get some. Here comes some. 122 00:08:56,660 --> 00:08:57,740 It's in case you don't believe me. 123 00:08:58,660 --> 00:09:03,580 Hebrews one one through 3 A long ago God spoke to our ancestors 124 00:09:03,580 --> 00:09:05,820 in many and various ways by the prophets. 125 00:09:06,300 --> 00:09:09,580 But in these last days, last days, it turns out, is a little 126 00:09:09,580 --> 00:09:13,460 longer than we thought. He has spoken to us by a Son 127 00:09:13,460 --> 00:09:17,100 whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also 128 00:09:17,100 --> 00:09:20,380 created the world's. He is reflection of God's glory 129 00:09:20,380 --> 00:09:24,420 and the exact imprint of God's being. 130 00:09:24,420 --> 00:09:28,220 Jesus is the exact imprint of who God is. 131 00:09:29,380 --> 00:09:33,300 Colossians 115. He, Jesus, is the image of the 132 00:09:33,300 --> 00:09:37,140 invisible God, the first born of all creation. 133 00:09:38,380 --> 00:09:42,100 Colossians 29. For in him the whole fullness of 134 00:09:42,100 --> 00:09:47,220 deity dwells bodily. One of my very favorites, John 135 00:09:47,220 --> 00:09:53,220 11 and 14, in the beginning was the Word referring here to 136 00:09:53,220 --> 00:09:58,540 Jesus, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 137 00:09:59,300 --> 00:10:04,420 And then in 14 and the Word became flesh and lived among us. 138 00:10:04,420 --> 00:10:06,660 More on this Word metaphor later. 139 00:10:08,020 --> 00:10:12,260 Jesus himself says, if you know me, if you have seen me, if 140 00:10:12,260 --> 00:10:15,460 you've experienced me, have you met me? 141 00:10:16,660 --> 00:10:20,820 You've met the Father. John 14-7 If you know me, you 142 00:10:20,820 --> 00:10:24,060 will know my Father also from now on. 143 00:10:24,700 --> 00:10:27,420 You do know him and have seen him. 144 00:10:28,620 --> 00:10:34,460 And so Jesus's work, God's work on earth and Jesus is to reveal 145 00:10:35,060 --> 00:10:42,380 the nature of God to humanity and to reveal the mission of 146 00:10:42,380 --> 00:10:48,460 God, the Kingdom of God, to show us what it looks like when God 147 00:10:48,460 --> 00:10:53,100 makes everything right, when God restores everything to himself. 148 00:10:53,580 --> 00:10:58,900 This is the Kingdom of God. To reveal the Kingdom. 149 00:10:59,300 --> 00:11:00,820 Jesus himself says it's his mission. 150 00:11:00,820 --> 00:11:06,300 Luke 443 He said to them, I must proclaim the good news of God to 151 00:11:06,300 --> 00:11:11,260 the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose. 152 00:11:11,460 --> 00:11:22,340 So Jesus comes in some ways as a metaphor because there are Jesus 153 00:11:22,340 --> 00:11:25,940 is the fullest expression and the very imprint of God, but 154 00:11:25,940 --> 00:11:28,900 there are spiritual ways in which God the Father and God the 155 00:11:28,900 --> 00:11:31,660 Son are different. This is a deep matter for much 156 00:11:31,660 --> 00:11:34,940 discussion that I've got like 10 more seconds for. 157 00:11:35,300 --> 00:11:37,660 So if you have questions about that, we're happy to talk. 158 00:11:38,500 --> 00:11:43,780 But if Jesus is like a metaphor, like a way of revealing some all 159 00:11:43,780 --> 00:11:46,940 of the truth about God that we can apprehend in human form, 160 00:11:46,940 --> 00:11:50,180 right? And in so doing, he reveals the 161 00:11:50,180 --> 00:11:53,940 Kingdom of God. And how does he talk about the 162 00:11:53,940 --> 00:11:57,980 Kingdom? Well, as are spoilers in 163 00:11:57,980 --> 00:12:01,660 parables, and we're going to do a whole series on parables. 164 00:12:01,660 --> 00:12:04,940 Parables, if you've never heard of them, there's stories that 165 00:12:04,940 --> 00:12:07,740 that Jesus and other rabbis would have told that are 166 00:12:07,740 --> 00:12:12,220 particularly metaphorical. They're especially non literal. 167 00:12:12,300 --> 00:12:17,380 They're just thought experiments, thought sketches 168 00:12:17,380 --> 00:12:20,460 that give us a picture of a piece of what something is, 169 00:12:20,460 --> 00:12:21,940 because that's what metaphor does. 170 00:12:22,420 --> 00:12:26,300 Metaphor is about. Can I grasp a slice of this? 171 00:12:26,300 --> 00:12:29,940 Can I see a little image of it? Can I get some sense of what 172 00:12:29,940 --> 00:12:31,420 this thing is? Because I can't get the whole 173 00:12:31,420 --> 00:12:35,700 thing. So we are beginning a series on 174 00:12:35,700 --> 00:12:40,100 the parables in Scripture. Throughout the series, every 175 00:12:40,100 --> 00:12:44,020 week we're going to be asking the question that Jesus was so 176 00:12:44,020 --> 00:12:48,260 often answering. What is the Kingdom of God like? 177 00:12:49,140 --> 00:12:52,860 And we're going to explore the parables to find the ways that 178 00:12:52,900 --> 00:12:57,060 Jesus answers this question, giving people these glimpses, 179 00:12:57,060 --> 00:12:59,980 these snapshots and angles on the Kingdom of God. 180 00:12:59,980 --> 00:13:03,140 The beautiful thing about this is a series, I'll tell you is 181 00:13:03,140 --> 00:13:05,140 I'm doing 1 parable today, right? 182 00:13:05,140 --> 00:13:08,180 You're going to get this slice and then next week, is it Tori? 183 00:13:08,180 --> 00:13:10,740 Next week you're going to get this slice and you're going to 184 00:13:10,740 --> 00:13:12,500 get all of these different angles. 185 00:13:12,500 --> 00:13:16,100 And in the aggregate, you begin to understand more and more 186 00:13:16,100 --> 00:13:18,420 about what the Kingdom is. It's a beautiful thing. 187 00:13:21,140 --> 00:13:25,660 So today's text is it's called usually the Parable of the 188 00:13:25,660 --> 00:13:28,060 sower. I think it would more properly 189 00:13:28,060 --> 00:13:31,900 be called the parable of the soils and we'll talk more about 190 00:13:31,900 --> 00:13:35,940 that later. I think it is a good jumping off 191 00:13:35,940 --> 00:13:39,500 point for the series because in addition to getting the parable, 192 00:13:39,980 --> 00:13:42,540 we get Jesus explanation of the parable. 193 00:13:42,540 --> 00:13:45,980 So this is the this is the parables for dummies section, 194 00:13:46,300 --> 00:13:48,020 which is useful for all of us, right? 195 00:13:48,020 --> 00:13:51,300 This is the place where where Jesus really holds our hand 196 00:13:51,300 --> 00:13:53,340 through. OK, this is exactly what this 197 00:13:53,340 --> 00:13:56,420 means for those of you who are here through the minor prophets. 198 00:13:56,420 --> 00:13:59,300 We had to do a lot of that interpretive work ourselves. 199 00:13:59,580 --> 00:14:02,700 It was a little bit more challenging to try to find the 200 00:14:02,700 --> 00:14:05,860 truth. What is this story about in the 201 00:14:05,860 --> 00:14:07,340 minor prophets? What are we really talking about 202 00:14:07,340 --> 00:14:08,900 here? Jesus is like, this is exactly 203 00:14:08,900 --> 00:14:11,380 what we're talking about. So it's useful because we're 204 00:14:11,380 --> 00:14:14,620 going to get the lesson that Jesus teaches, the glimpse at 205 00:14:14,620 --> 00:14:17,580 the Kingdom, but also we're seeing his methodology too. 206 00:14:17,740 --> 00:14:21,940 OK, so we're going to we're going to return, I'm going to 207 00:14:21,940 --> 00:14:24,540 read the the text again. I'm going to read the reread the 208 00:14:24,540 --> 00:14:26,740 story as Jesus told it to all the people. 209 00:14:27,300 --> 00:14:29,860 And then I'm going to read Jesus explanation which we didn't get 210 00:14:29,860 --> 00:14:34,460 last time. OK, this is Matthew 13. 211 00:14:34,460 --> 00:14:35,700 The first section is one through 9. 212 00:14:35,780 --> 00:14:38,140 The second section is 18 through 23. 213 00:14:38,260 --> 00:14:43,100 OK, that same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the 214 00:14:43,100 --> 00:14:45,780 sea. Such great crowds gathered 215 00:14:45,780 --> 00:14:48,740 around him that he got into a boat and sat there while the 216 00:14:48,740 --> 00:14:52,420 whole crowd stood on the beach. I love this picture. 217 00:14:52,420 --> 00:14:55,020 Jesus like, like, of course people show up. 218 00:14:55,060 --> 00:14:57,660 It's not like a a surprise, but he's like, I guess if I go out a 219 00:14:57,660 --> 00:14:59,980 little bit, maybe they can hear me preach. 220 00:15:01,260 --> 00:15:04,780 Makes a a boat a pulpit. Sign me up if we want to try 221 00:15:04,780 --> 00:15:09,940 that sometime. And he told them many things in 222 00:15:09,940 --> 00:15:13,860 parables, saying, listen, a sower went out to sow, and as he 223 00:15:13,860 --> 00:15:19,740 sowed, some seeds fell on a path, so a hard place, and the 224 00:15:19,740 --> 00:15:23,900 birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky soil 225 00:15:24,260 --> 00:15:26,860 where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly 226 00:15:27,860 --> 00:15:29,300 because they had no depths of soil. 227 00:15:29,300 --> 00:15:31,980 So the roots go short distance, so there's energy to shoot the 228 00:15:31,980 --> 00:15:36,540 shoots up real quick. But when the sun rose, they were 229 00:15:36,540 --> 00:15:40,580 scorched, and because they had no root to draw that cooling 230 00:15:40,860 --> 00:15:43,860 life and water up from the soil, they withered away. 231 00:15:44,900 --> 00:15:50,140 Other seeds fell amongst thorns, weeds, and the thorns grew up 232 00:15:50,660 --> 00:15:54,020 and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil 233 00:15:54,020 --> 00:15:58,820 and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some 60, some 30, 234 00:15:59,340 --> 00:16:02,060 if you have ears here. OK. 235 00:16:02,300 --> 00:16:05,700 And the explanation. So Jesus, his, his disciples 236 00:16:05,700 --> 00:16:08,540 were like, why do you do that? Why do you even talk like that? 237 00:16:11,300 --> 00:16:15,500 And he's like, basically what he says is because this is the only 238 00:16:15,500 --> 00:16:17,620 way that you have a hope of getting it, He's like, and most 239 00:16:17,620 --> 00:16:20,660 people aren't going to get it. In fact, you guys are lucky that 240 00:16:20,660 --> 00:16:22,660 you are getting some of this and that I'm explaining some of it 241 00:16:22,660 --> 00:16:26,220 to you. Because if you don't have a 242 00:16:26,220 --> 00:16:29,460 receptivity to these stories, if you don't have an imagination 243 00:16:29,700 --> 00:16:33,540 for understanding them, they don't hit more on this. 244 00:16:33,940 --> 00:16:36,780 So OK, so then Jesus says here then the parable of the sower. 245 00:16:37,540 --> 00:16:41,940 When anyone hears the word of the Kingdom and does not 246 00:16:41,940 --> 00:16:46,220 understand it, the evil 1 comes and snatches away what was sown 247 00:16:46,780 --> 00:16:49,700 in the heart. This is what was sown along the 248 00:16:49,700 --> 00:16:52,860 path. And As for what was sown on 249 00:16:52,860 --> 00:16:56,220 rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and 250 00:16:56,220 --> 00:16:58,300 immediately receives it with joy. 251 00:16:59,060 --> 00:17:03,500 Yet such a person has no root and endures only for a while. 252 00:17:04,300 --> 00:17:07,339 But when trouble or prosecution rises on account of the word, 253 00:17:07,859 --> 00:17:09,740 that person immediately falls away. 254 00:17:10,579 --> 00:17:14,940 How many of us have been this person or know these people? 255 00:17:15,900 --> 00:17:20,300 Where you you get it, but it's so hard that you don't have the 256 00:17:20,300 --> 00:17:25,180 maturity to live in it. And what was sown among the 257 00:17:25,180 --> 00:17:26,819 thorns? This is the person who hears the 258 00:17:26,819 --> 00:17:30,020 word. But the cares of this age and 259 00:17:30,020 --> 00:17:36,260 the lure of wealth choke the word and it yields nothing, 260 00:17:36,380 --> 00:17:39,140 right? So this is, I love that this is 261 00:17:39,140 --> 00:17:41,580 a continuum because it's all just cares of the world. 262 00:17:41,940 --> 00:17:45,060 It's just that you can be full up and good and you're still 263 00:17:45,060 --> 00:17:47,060 cares of the world in all the way into wealth. 264 00:17:47,860 --> 00:17:49,620 But where will my second plane be? 265 00:17:49,980 --> 00:17:52,900 My first plane breaks down. It's real. 266 00:17:53,860 --> 00:17:56,300 And we all have different measures of what wealth looks 267 00:17:56,300 --> 00:18:00,180 like on our own lives. It's hard sometimes because the 268 00:18:00,180 --> 00:18:02,380 cares of this age also seem pretty reasonable, don't they? 269 00:18:02,380 --> 00:18:03,980 Like, I am going to need to eat today. 270 00:18:06,980 --> 00:18:09,740 But As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears 271 00:18:09,740 --> 00:18:13,780 the word, understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields in 272 00:18:13,780 --> 00:18:17,700 one case a hundredfold, in another 60, in another 30. 273 00:18:18,820 --> 00:18:21,860 So we have here, it's a great story. 274 00:18:21,860 --> 00:18:24,820 It's a beautiful agrarian scene. It would do well in a little 275 00:18:24,820 --> 00:18:28,300 fairy tale. You can imagine a farmer sewing. 276 00:18:28,740 --> 00:18:31,500 And that that's this story to this audience would be very 277 00:18:31,500 --> 00:18:34,780 familiar, right? They're much more connected to 278 00:18:35,140 --> 00:18:37,220 the farming lifestyle. Many of them may have been 279 00:18:37,220 --> 00:18:40,980 farmers who were there. You can even imagine Jesus at 280 00:18:40,980 --> 00:18:43,940 the Sea of Galilee. There are terrace farms on the 281 00:18:43,940 --> 00:18:47,500 banks of the Sea of Galilee. So he could be like, like that 282 00:18:47,500 --> 00:18:49,620 guy over there sowing seed right now. 283 00:18:50,100 --> 00:18:52,340 That could have been real. So these are people that are 284 00:18:52,340 --> 00:18:56,220 well connected to this picture and even in the modern mind, the 285 00:18:56,220 --> 00:19:00,260 central idea of a farming metaphor is pretty 286 00:19:00,260 --> 00:19:02,860 straightforward. Like this isn't like, woah, what 287 00:19:02,860 --> 00:19:09,420 is farming like you've heard of it, you've read Old McDonald and 288 00:19:09,420 --> 00:19:13,340 I'm happy to take Jesus word on the rocky soil and the weeds and 289 00:19:13,820 --> 00:19:16,420 we could add soil pH or something for the fancy 290 00:19:16,420 --> 00:19:19,620 gardeners amongst us. People are asking questions 291 00:19:19,700 --> 00:19:22,220 about till versus no till, farming before the service. 292 00:19:23,380 --> 00:19:26,420 So the central metaphor, the farming metaphor, not not that 293 00:19:26,420 --> 00:19:29,500 hard to understand yes, I hope so yeah, looking good. 294 00:19:30,100 --> 00:19:32,820 There's two embedded metaphors. Remember earlier I was trying to 295 00:19:32,820 --> 00:19:34,940 describe metaphor. I end up putting metaphors in my 296 00:19:35,020 --> 00:19:39,180 explaining A metaphor metaphor. We nest these things always. 297 00:19:39,180 --> 00:19:43,100 This is the nature of language. So the two embedded metaphors 298 00:19:43,260 --> 00:19:48,500 within the story we do need to unpack and understand well, the 299 00:19:48,580 --> 00:19:52,980 the metaphors embedded in the parable are word and heart, 300 00:19:53,340 --> 00:19:56,220 right? Because word is not a seed. 301 00:19:56,220 --> 00:19:59,140 A seed is not a word. That's not a thing literally. 302 00:20:00,260 --> 00:20:03,220 And the heart is not a soil, right? 303 00:20:04,260 --> 00:20:06,660 Again, you might already be feeling what what kind of is 304 00:20:06,660 --> 00:20:08,380 though. Yes, you got it. 305 00:20:08,660 --> 00:20:13,820 Good job. So how can we understand the 306 00:20:13,820 --> 00:20:17,260 word word in this scriptural context? 307 00:20:17,860 --> 00:20:21,460 At the beginning of the text, the explanation, Jesus says the 308 00:20:21,460 --> 00:20:24,780 word of the Kingdom. So when I think about this, I 309 00:20:24,780 --> 00:20:28,620 think about this word of the Kingdom being the idea, the 310 00:20:28,620 --> 00:20:34,580 concept of of the Kingdom of God and maybe maybe even more than 311 00:20:34,580 --> 00:20:37,540 just that as an idea that abstract. 312 00:20:38,460 --> 00:20:40,140 Earlier we talked about John 1, right? 313 00:20:40,740 --> 00:20:44,540 One of my favorites. The Word was with God, and the 314 00:20:44,540 --> 00:20:48,140 Word was God. The word here for the word of 315 00:20:48,140 --> 00:20:50,980 Kingdom. Logos is the same word word. 316 00:20:51,740 --> 00:20:56,700 That's in John one, right? There's this concept that Jesus 317 00:20:57,340 --> 00:21:00,100 is the Word. This is a metaphor that is 318 00:21:00,100 --> 00:21:02,180 explored throughout the Scripture in beautiful ways. 319 00:21:02,180 --> 00:21:03,660 This time I'm not going to run you through a whole bunch of 320 00:21:03,660 --> 00:21:05,500 scriptures. You just have to take my word 321 00:21:05,500 --> 00:21:13,580 for it. The beginning was the Word. 322 00:21:13,580 --> 00:21:15,620 The Word was with God. The Word was God. 323 00:21:15,620 --> 00:21:17,340 He was in the beginning with God. 324 00:21:17,780 --> 00:21:21,460 All things came into being through him, and without him 325 00:21:21,460 --> 00:21:25,900 nothing came into being. So there's something about Jesus 326 00:21:25,900 --> 00:21:32,300 as Word that is about the creating impetus of this world, 327 00:21:32,380 --> 00:21:34,940 of all of creation, of all of the existence of the Kingdom of 328 00:21:34,940 --> 00:21:37,780 God, Something about the making of it in the Word. 329 00:21:37,780 --> 00:21:40,900 And there's something about the fact that Jesus is called the 330 00:21:40,900 --> 00:21:43,980 Word. And so I would say we talked 331 00:21:43,980 --> 00:21:47,140 about the word of the Kingdom. We're talking about an encounter 332 00:21:47,820 --> 00:21:51,740 with Jesus. But again, not just literally 333 00:21:51,740 --> 00:21:55,140 like like people heard Jesus talking to them at this place in 334 00:21:55,140 --> 00:21:59,900 time, but any encounter with Jesus, with God, with the 335 00:21:59,900 --> 00:22:05,380 presence of God throughout history, that there is a, a deep 336 00:22:06,780 --> 00:22:10,260 presence, truth and metaphysical reality of the Kingdom that you 337 00:22:10,260 --> 00:22:16,180 can encounter in many ways. So understanding what the word 338 00:22:16,180 --> 00:22:19,100 is, the context of the parable is this is the place where the 339 00:22:19,100 --> 00:22:24,420 Kingdom is revealed in the heart, whether that is something 340 00:22:24,420 --> 00:22:28,420 that you did read or hear or in an action, you saw the Kingdom 341 00:22:28,420 --> 00:22:33,260 of God, you saw an encounter of God expressed in the kindness of 342 00:22:33,260 --> 00:22:37,340 a human to another human, in something beautiful in nature, 343 00:22:37,500 --> 00:22:40,220 right? There's many ways to experience 344 00:22:40,220 --> 00:22:42,100 the goodness of the Kingdom of God. 345 00:22:42,420 --> 00:22:44,580 Anytime you have encountered something, you thought, this is 346 00:22:44,580 --> 00:22:47,620 right, this is how things should be. 347 00:22:48,020 --> 00:22:49,980 This is an encounter with the good Kingdom. 348 00:22:50,260 --> 00:22:53,500 Amen. And remember this, this is so 349 00:22:53,500 --> 00:22:56,540 important to me. We talk sometimes about like the 350 00:22:56,540 --> 00:22:59,420 Kingdom and earth like like coming into and crashing into 351 00:22:59,420 --> 00:23:02,500 each other. Not a bad metaphor, but I prefer 352 00:23:02,500 --> 00:23:05,940 this. The Kingdom, the creation comes 353 00:23:05,940 --> 00:23:09,180 first. God created everything in a well 354 00:23:09,180 --> 00:23:12,900 ordered and good way. And so the reality of everything 355 00:23:12,900 --> 00:23:18,100 that is creation as it is, it is centrally the good Kingdom of 356 00:23:18,100 --> 00:23:22,180 God that has got a little obscuring goo on it. 357 00:23:22,740 --> 00:23:27,420 Everything that is bad is the thinnest veil, the flimsiest 358 00:23:27,420 --> 00:23:30,740 thing that is gets getting in the way of seeing what is really 359 00:23:30,740 --> 00:23:33,460 there, which is the Kingdom. All right, so we're going to see 360 00:23:33,460 --> 00:23:38,980 that Kingdom poking through, that obscurant, that veil, that 361 00:23:38,980 --> 00:23:44,580 mess lots of times and places, the mess, the darkness cannot 362 00:23:44,860 --> 00:23:50,140 overcome it. So an encounter with the 363 00:23:50,140 --> 00:23:53,780 Kingdom, anytime we see the Kingdom poking through, that is 364 00:23:53,780 --> 00:23:57,460 the word of the Kingdom. That is you experiencing that 365 00:23:57,460 --> 00:24:00,820 seed. So the second metaphor then is 366 00:24:01,020 --> 00:24:06,500 heart, the heart. We still use heart as a metaphor 367 00:24:06,900 --> 00:24:10,900 in our culture, right? And in Greek, the word here, 368 00:24:10,900 --> 00:24:13,420 cardia, it's the same as our heart. 369 00:24:13,420 --> 00:24:15,740 Like it's, it's just a word for the organ that pumps blood 370 00:24:15,740 --> 00:24:18,100 around. So they're, they're using the 371 00:24:18,100 --> 00:24:20,900 metaphor in really similar ways. It's interesting. 372 00:24:21,860 --> 00:24:27,620 It helps Word study tool says that the word heart is used over 373 00:24:27,620 --> 00:24:31,260 800 times and the Old and New Testament throughout the Bible. 374 00:24:31,260 --> 00:24:35,100 So it's a huge metaphor, but is only ever used figuratively, 375 00:24:35,420 --> 00:24:38,180 never used literally in the whole Bible, only ever as a 376 00:24:38,180 --> 00:24:41,100 metaphor. That is important. 377 00:24:41,300 --> 00:24:45,060 There is a little tweak that I think is important in the way 378 00:24:45,060 --> 00:24:48,380 that the Greeks would have seen heart versus the way that we use 379 00:24:48,380 --> 00:24:50,780 heart right when we use heart today. 380 00:24:50,780 --> 00:24:54,180 Generally, we're speaking about like a love heart, like 381 00:24:54,180 --> 00:24:57,300 Valentine's hearts like emotion, right? 382 00:24:58,460 --> 00:25:00,460 Like you would you would like, I love that you push your little 383 00:25:00,460 --> 00:25:06,700 heart button on your phone. Great. 384 00:25:07,940 --> 00:25:11,620 In the Greek context, there was much less of a split. 385 00:25:12,140 --> 00:25:16,580 We put a split between heart and mind where we are in our Western 386 00:25:16,580 --> 00:25:20,020 culture, right? It's not even scientifically 387 00:25:20,020 --> 00:25:21,860 accurate. That's not how anyone thinks. 388 00:25:22,340 --> 00:25:24,820 Like I have my pure thoughts and sometimes I have feelings. 389 00:25:24,820 --> 00:25:27,660 Like everything is mixed together. 390 00:25:27,980 --> 00:25:31,940 And amazingly, the Greeks without the science for it, knew 391 00:25:31,940 --> 00:25:34,780 this already. There was a sense the heart is 392 00:25:34,780 --> 00:25:42,820 the center of of thought and feeling together, desire and 393 00:25:42,820 --> 00:25:45,020 volition and will. Choosing to do something, 394 00:25:45,020 --> 00:25:48,140 wanting and doing and choosing, it all goes together. 395 00:25:48,140 --> 00:25:51,940 So for the Greek, it's not just feeling, but it's thought and 396 00:25:51,940 --> 00:25:54,900 action all together. So when we talk about the heart, 397 00:25:54,900 --> 00:25:57,260 that's the way you're going. You want to take your love 398 00:25:57,260 --> 00:25:59,540 heart, make it into El Arrow. That's what we're talking about. 399 00:25:59,540 --> 00:26:05,020 Does it make sense? I think when you look at heart 400 00:26:05,020 --> 00:26:07,180 in this way, it's interesting because it can be used 401 00:26:07,180 --> 00:26:09,260 collectively as well. This is something that Jesus 402 00:26:09,260 --> 00:26:13,580 does in Matthew 15/8. Here Jesus is quoting from 403 00:26:13,580 --> 00:26:16,180 Isaiah. He says this people honors me 404 00:26:16,180 --> 00:26:20,180 with their lips, but their heart, their singular heart for 405 00:26:20,180 --> 00:26:25,060 these people is far from me. So as a group, the heart of a 406 00:26:25,060 --> 00:26:26,820 people is the thing that can exist. 407 00:26:27,420 --> 00:26:29,500 They might with their lips do lip service. 408 00:26:29,500 --> 00:26:31,580 We've heard of lip service. Another great metaphor, right? 409 00:26:32,460 --> 00:26:35,620 We, we say a thing, but which, where are we pointing? 410 00:26:36,140 --> 00:26:40,580 Where is our chosen desire and and motion and our thought and 411 00:26:40,580 --> 00:26:42,540 feeling together? So that's the kind of heart 412 00:26:42,540 --> 00:26:46,060 we're talking about here. So if we think about the heart 413 00:26:46,060 --> 00:26:51,220 as an integrated way, we think about the word sown to the 414 00:26:51,220 --> 00:26:55,580 heart, what we have here is an encounter with the Kingdom of 415 00:26:55,580 --> 00:27:00,020 God. And then how is your heart, your 416 00:27:00,540 --> 00:27:03,740 your thought, feeling, direction, desire, going to 417 00:27:03,740 --> 00:27:07,660 respond and turn and be pointed as a result of that. 418 00:27:08,020 --> 00:27:10,220 And that's what the parable is about is different soils, 419 00:27:10,500 --> 00:27:14,820 different kinds of hearts that that Jesus is talking about. 420 00:27:16,700 --> 00:27:21,660 In the case of the path, the heart is, for whatever reason, 421 00:27:21,660 --> 00:27:24,740 hard. It has become hardened to the 422 00:27:24,740 --> 00:27:26,700 Kingdom. Maybe it's because something has 423 00:27:26,700 --> 00:27:31,180 happened to compact that soil. Unfortunately, we can have 424 00:27:31,180 --> 00:27:34,860 experiences which harden us to the Kingdom of God, whether 425 00:27:34,860 --> 00:27:40,420 those are negative religious experiences or hardness in life. 426 00:27:41,500 --> 00:27:44,860 And seeing places where it looks like God did not show up can 427 00:27:44,860 --> 00:27:47,740 make your heart hard. It can also be that you have 428 00:27:47,740 --> 00:27:52,180 never cultivated an imagination for the Kingdom of God. 429 00:27:52,180 --> 00:27:54,700 You have no frame of reference for it. 430 00:27:55,340 --> 00:27:58,180 So we'll talk more about what to do about that. 431 00:27:58,300 --> 00:28:03,780 I'm getting ahead of myself. Sometimes the word can be 432 00:28:03,780 --> 00:28:07,540 received, but only goes so deep in a heart that is not ready for 433 00:28:07,540 --> 00:28:09,380 it. This is the the rocky soil. 434 00:28:12,780 --> 00:28:16,660 This is just a kind of faith that is seeing a truth and yet 435 00:28:17,180 --> 00:28:19,300 doesn't have the maturity to stick with it. 436 00:28:19,300 --> 00:28:24,580 Because the reality is that it is hard to do things counter to 437 00:28:24,580 --> 00:28:29,380 this world's way. That obscurant that veil is, is 438 00:28:29,380 --> 00:28:32,140 pervasive. And the reality of the Kingdom 439 00:28:32,140 --> 00:28:34,540 is opposed to the main way of things being. 440 00:28:34,540 --> 00:28:40,540 So it's hard to live that way. The word sown in the weeds, OK, 441 00:28:41,540 --> 00:28:43,540 maybe your heart, it's got no pads in it. 442 00:28:43,660 --> 00:28:46,660 You got the deepest, most fertile, mature soil. 443 00:28:47,700 --> 00:28:51,660 All of us got weeds, friends, because the cares of this world, 444 00:28:51,660 --> 00:28:54,620 no one is insulated from that. This is what I was trying to 445 00:28:54,620 --> 00:28:56,980 talk about earlier with wealth. Wealth does not insulate you 446 00:28:56,980 --> 00:29:00,900 from the cares of this world. There will always be something 447 00:29:01,380 --> 00:29:05,140 that comes up that worries you about how life is going to be, 448 00:29:05,140 --> 00:29:08,060 whether that is a very simple sustaining thing, whether it's 449 00:29:08,060 --> 00:29:13,740 about meaning in life, whether it's about desire or you're 450 00:29:13,740 --> 00:29:15,300 worried you don't even have the right desires. 451 00:29:15,300 --> 00:29:17,540 Like there are cares in life that we all face. 452 00:29:19,660 --> 00:29:21,420 I think that this works in the metaphor. 453 00:29:22,900 --> 00:29:26,260 Can you tell me, gardeners, what where do weeds show up? 454 00:29:27,300 --> 00:29:30,980 Everywhere. Weeds are the natural state of 455 00:29:30,980 --> 00:29:32,860 things. They have to be removed. 456 00:29:33,380 --> 00:29:35,780 OK, so that's just, that's just how that works. 457 00:29:39,100 --> 00:29:46,860 Jesus wrote it when the heart is ready, when it is a rich and 458 00:29:46,860 --> 00:29:49,780 fertile soil, and when the heart is tended. 459 00:29:50,100 --> 00:29:51,580 And this is something that God does. 460 00:29:51,580 --> 00:29:54,220 We don't make it ready. God will do the work. 461 00:29:54,940 --> 00:29:57,540 We can grasp the Kingdom as we receive it. 462 00:29:57,540 --> 00:30:01,020 We have that encounter and it will sink deep and we will 463 00:30:01,580 --> 00:30:04,540 automatically in the same way that a seed will grow given 464 00:30:04,540 --> 00:30:06,420 nutrients and sun and water, right? 465 00:30:06,580 --> 00:30:08,780 It's going to happen. You don't have to make it 466 00:30:08,780 --> 00:30:12,660 happen. The goodness, the good fruit of 467 00:30:12,660 --> 00:30:15,060 the Kingdom of God will come forward. 468 00:30:15,460 --> 00:30:18,380 And what's great about fruit is fruit produces fruit which you 469 00:30:18,380 --> 00:30:20,580 can eat. And what's in fruit? 470 00:30:21,420 --> 00:30:23,660 Seeds. So the word goes forth. 471 00:30:23,660 --> 00:30:26,340 That's where we get into this 3060 a hundredfold. 472 00:30:26,340 --> 00:30:30,180 Amen. All right, I have more good 473 00:30:30,180 --> 00:30:35,340 news. God's Word, Jesus, the word of 474 00:30:35,340 --> 00:30:42,980 the Kingdom Never ever fails. We heard this as our our 475 00:30:43,180 --> 00:30:45,700 gathering scripture this morning, or welcoming scripture 476 00:30:46,020 --> 00:30:50,140 just by chance, Isaiah 5510 and 11. 477 00:30:51,220 --> 00:30:56,060 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do 478 00:30:56,060 --> 00:31:00,220 not return there until they have watered the earth, bringing it 479 00:31:00,300 --> 00:31:03,740 for bringing forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower, and 480 00:31:03,740 --> 00:31:09,140 bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my 481 00:31:09,140 --> 00:31:13,180 mouth. It shall not return to me empty. 482 00:31:13,180 --> 00:31:18,820 It shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the 483 00:31:18,820 --> 00:31:23,740 thing for which I sent it. The word of the Lord will not 484 00:31:23,740 --> 00:31:28,020 return empty. The encounters of the Kingdom 485 00:31:28,020 --> 00:31:33,220 will bear fruit. It is guaranteed when the the 486 00:31:33,460 --> 00:31:38,780 God, the Creator who spoke existence into being speaks 487 00:31:38,780 --> 00:31:43,180 again, it's going to create all right. 488 00:31:43,940 --> 00:31:46,700 When when our Messiah, when Jesus comes and shares himself 489 00:31:46,700 --> 00:31:49,900 with people, they're going to get it. 490 00:31:49,900 --> 00:31:53,620 Even if you don't all get it all at once, even if different 491 00:31:53,620 --> 00:31:57,380 people got it then we thought would get it, it's happening. 492 00:31:57,740 --> 00:32:03,740 It will not return bearing. And so we know individually and 493 00:32:03,740 --> 00:32:07,380 even as a group, we are not free from the weeds and rocks of this 494 00:32:07,380 --> 00:32:14,860 world, but we know that the Kingdom which has come is still 495 00:32:14,860 --> 00:32:19,220 coming and will come in the same way. 496 00:32:19,500 --> 00:32:23,660 The word of the Lord, it's it's still happening today. 497 00:32:23,660 --> 00:32:28,260 God came, God created, God came in Jesus, and God is still 498 00:32:28,260 --> 00:32:33,540 coming today to be in our lives. The metaphor still works. 499 00:32:33,660 --> 00:32:37,980 Tell me, friends, does the sower sow seed once in a field and 500 00:32:37,980 --> 00:32:42,980 then walk away, never to return? Or does the sower come again 501 00:32:43,340 --> 00:32:46,220 season after season, planting the right crops for the right 502 00:32:46,220 --> 00:32:49,260 season, letting things sit fallow in the right times, and 503 00:32:49,260 --> 00:32:53,860 then returning again and again? Does the sower, the good 504 00:32:53,860 --> 00:33:00,180 gardener who knows his land, our hearts not see where the path 505 00:33:00,180 --> 00:33:04,100 has become hardened, not see where the soil is, is thick with 506 00:33:04,100 --> 00:33:08,100 rocks? Won't he care to to tell up 507 00:33:08,100 --> 00:33:10,300 those rocks to break up that hard soil? 508 00:33:10,860 --> 00:33:14,340 And won't he work season on season as things change? 509 00:33:15,580 --> 00:33:20,660 So this is not a one shot deal. Sometimes in certain traditions 510 00:33:20,660 --> 00:33:23,780 we have made this parable into a one shot thing. 511 00:33:23,780 --> 00:33:25,780 Like I told you, I told you the gospel. 512 00:33:25,780 --> 00:33:28,380 Are you going to hear it or not? As though that was it. 513 00:33:28,940 --> 00:33:31,820 For starters, the good news to the Kingdom of God is an 514 00:33:31,820 --> 00:33:36,020 everywhere everyday thing to those who have been blessed to 515 00:33:36,020 --> 00:33:38,900 see it and and hear it as God opens our eyes. 516 00:33:39,220 --> 00:33:43,940 Secondly, the soil of our lives is not a one shot thing like 517 00:33:43,940 --> 00:33:47,900 you're fully converted everything arable all at once. 518 00:33:50,980 --> 00:33:58,500 So that's the metaphor. What does it mean for us? 519 00:33:58,500 --> 00:34:02,860 How do we do something with this story today in plain language, 520 00:34:03,460 --> 00:34:12,340 in real life, what do we do? We know that God is a good God. 521 00:34:12,340 --> 00:34:13,659 We we call him the Good Shepherd. 522 00:34:14,020 --> 00:34:19,739 He's a good gardener too. In in John 1415, one through 4 523 00:34:19,739 --> 00:34:24,420 in the NIVI am the true vine and my father is the gardener. 524 00:34:25,580 --> 00:34:28,820 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every 525 00:34:28,820 --> 00:34:32,860 branch that does bear fruit he prunes or cleans, so it will 526 00:34:32,860 --> 00:34:37,980 even be more fruitful. You are already clean because of 527 00:34:37,980 --> 00:34:42,100 the word I've spoken to you. Remain in me as I also remain 528 00:34:42,460 --> 00:34:47,460 day after day in you. No branch can bear fruit by 529 00:34:47,460 --> 00:34:49,300 itself, it must remain in the vine. 530 00:34:51,540 --> 00:34:53,460 Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 531 00:34:55,420 --> 00:34:58,300 God wants to help us. He wants to tend to us. 532 00:34:58,300 --> 00:35:03,940 He wants to cultivate our heart soil and all we need to do. 533 00:35:05,660 --> 00:35:08,020 It's going to sound easy. The concept is easy. 534 00:35:08,020 --> 00:35:11,180 The metaphor is simple. It's turn to him in willingness 535 00:35:12,340 --> 00:35:19,900 to do that. And that's in the complexity of 536 00:35:19,900 --> 00:35:25,140 is that we are a vast heartland with many kinds of soil. 537 00:35:25,660 --> 00:35:29,340 There are places in your life where you are fully ready to 538 00:35:29,340 --> 00:35:31,860 hear God's word. You, you see it. 539 00:35:31,940 --> 00:35:34,500 You walk down the street and you can't help but see what God is 540 00:35:34,500 --> 00:35:37,260 doing right. And there are places in your 541 00:35:37,260 --> 00:35:42,620 life where you are hardened and not ready to see it. 542 00:35:44,740 --> 00:35:47,940 And that's across the breadth of who you are. 543 00:35:48,540 --> 00:35:51,540 And what's great about it is that we're all different too, 544 00:35:51,540 --> 00:35:54,540 and we're all going to bear slightly different fruit and 545 00:35:54,540 --> 00:35:59,980 God's wondrous diversity in US, and that God is going to work 546 00:35:59,980 --> 00:36:04,020 with us at different times on different places. 547 00:36:04,020 --> 00:36:06,980 You don't have to be like dredging up flogging yourself, 548 00:36:06,980 --> 00:36:08,700 like where? Where's my worst soil? 549 00:36:08,940 --> 00:36:12,420 If the Lord leads you to a time of finding something, then 550 00:36:12,420 --> 00:36:15,220 that's God bless it. But I guarantee there's enough 551 00:36:15,220 --> 00:36:18,700 in you to work on. You can take his leading for 552 00:36:18,700 --> 00:36:20,260 what? What's, what's the job for the 553 00:36:20,260 --> 00:36:21,460 day? What are we doing today? 554 00:36:21,620 --> 00:36:24,260 Maybe today's the fruit day. Maybe today we're making good 555 00:36:24,260 --> 00:36:26,820 fruit. Maybe today and the season, it's 556 00:36:26,820 --> 00:36:29,100 the season of deepening our maturity. 557 00:36:30,820 --> 00:36:34,340 There's room for more and more and more of God's Kingdom. 558 00:36:34,580 --> 00:36:43,340 Farther up and farther in the bag can come up second. 559 00:36:43,340 --> 00:36:50,620 Peter 39 says the Lord is not slow about His promise, as some 560 00:36:50,620 --> 00:36:57,020 think of of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting 561 00:36:57,020 --> 00:37:04,340 any to perish, not wanting any to perish, not wanting anyone or 562 00:37:04,340 --> 00:37:10,980 any part of you to perish, but all to come to repentance, every 563 00:37:10,980 --> 00:37:14,820 part of you over time in His patience. 564 00:37:15,220 --> 00:37:19,700 He's ready, like the sun shines on all parts of the land. 565 00:37:19,700 --> 00:37:22,940 He's already there and He's going to guide you to the places 566 00:37:22,940 --> 00:37:25,820 and He's going to work with you. Will you stand with me? 567 00:37:29,780 --> 00:37:33,620 The Lord is waiting patiently and happily for us. 568 00:37:35,300 --> 00:37:39,700 If our hearts are hardened against the word of the Kingdom, 569 00:37:39,980 --> 00:37:45,060 we can in prayer ask God to soften our hearts and ask for an 570 00:37:45,060 --> 00:37:48,300 imagination to begin to understand His Kingdom. 571 00:37:49,540 --> 00:37:53,540 Read some George MacDonald, get some stories that will make a 572 00:37:53,540 --> 00:37:55,700 space for the Kingdom in your heart. 573 00:37:57,460 --> 00:38:02,900 If our hearts are shallow and rocky, we can ask God for a 574 00:38:02,900 --> 00:38:05,660 deeper faith. This is vital step. 575 00:38:06,180 --> 00:38:08,180 If you're going to make it, you're going to have to have 576 00:38:09,220 --> 00:38:13,100 more and more deep soils. But I want to tell you in all 577 00:38:13,100 --> 00:38:16,700 honesty, this is going to be one of the hardest ones because you 578 00:38:16,700 --> 00:38:24,460 get deep soil through suffering and walking with God in that if 579 00:38:24,460 --> 00:38:29,140 our heartlands are choked with weeds from worldly cares and 580 00:38:29,140 --> 00:38:34,900 wealth, we can begin simply by telling God about it. 581 00:38:35,660 --> 00:38:38,620 Say God, will you help me with my I'm really worried about all 582 00:38:38,620 --> 00:38:42,660 this stuff and then you can start to do some things about 583 00:38:42,660 --> 00:38:45,300 it. I will be honest. 584 00:38:45,460 --> 00:38:50,100 A great hack for your heart and mind together. 585 00:38:52,020 --> 00:38:58,220 Give some money away because you can just do that with real money 586 00:38:58,220 --> 00:39:01,540 and then it's you don't have it anymore and you have now trusted 587 00:39:01,540 --> 00:39:05,820 God with $0.50 or a dollar or $10. 588 00:39:05,820 --> 00:39:11,820 Whatever it is, as a practice, it will begin to dig up the 589 00:39:11,820 --> 00:39:16,660 weeds of care and the lure of wealth in you to engage in this 590 00:39:16,660 --> 00:39:20,980 practice. And as we do this, as we just 591 00:39:20,980 --> 00:39:24,180 turn to where God is already drawing us to do this good work, 592 00:39:24,620 --> 00:39:29,820 God, the good gardener, and as we prepare, we allow him to 593 00:39:29,820 --> 00:39:31,740 prepare the soils of our heartlands. 594 00:39:32,140 --> 00:39:35,820 We will find day by day, more and more you're going to 595 00:39:36,100 --> 00:39:40,220 encounter the word of the Kingdom, the seeds of the sower, 596 00:39:40,460 --> 00:39:46,700 the Kingdom of God everywhere, and naturally the fruit of the 597 00:39:46,700 --> 00:39:52,220 Kingdom will grow 3060 a hundred times. 598 00:39:53,380 --> 00:40:02,140 Let's pray God. Thank you for being a good 599 00:40:02,140 --> 00:40:07,420 gardener and thank you for being a present God, a God with us, a 600 00:40:07,420 --> 00:40:12,980 God who seeks us always. Thank you for being the God who 601 00:40:12,980 --> 00:40:20,700 will wait for us. God, even now by your spirit, I 602 00:40:20,700 --> 00:40:25,220 just pray that you would begin reaching out to all of us 603 00:40:25,220 --> 00:40:32,220 present for us to know what is the part of our heart soil you 604 00:40:32,220 --> 00:40:35,660 want to talk about today. What do you want to encounter us 605 00:40:35,660 --> 00:40:38,620 today? God, I pray for you to be moving 606 00:40:38,620 --> 00:40:43,820 us in conviction and I'll remind you friends, conviction is never 607 00:40:43,820 --> 00:40:47,140 feel like guilt or bad. Conviction is an encouragement 608 00:40:47,140 --> 00:40:49,540 to change. It should feel positive. 609 00:40:49,660 --> 00:40:52,540 If you're feeling bad about yourself right now, that ain't 610 00:40:52,540 --> 00:40:57,140 Jesus. So God, pour out your your 611 00:40:57,140 --> 00:41:02,140 conviction on us and encourage us to take steps today for 612 00:41:02,140 --> 00:41:05,820 whatever soil is our lives. And and we pray God too, for the 613 00:41:05,820 --> 00:41:09,860 fruit that we would begin to see your Kingdom come out of our 614 00:41:09,860 --> 00:41:12,100 lives as well as in the world around us and that we would see 615 00:41:12,100 --> 00:41:18,500 it God in this church and each other, by your grace, going to 616 00:41:18,500 --> 00:41:21,780 invite the prayer team up. God bless you.