Our series in the Gospel of Mark, we're going to be reading from verse one to verse 20. I'm reading in the NIV verse one again. Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. He was. He taught them many things by parables. And in his teaching he said, listen. A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path. Sorry. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds of the air came and ate it up. Some fell on the 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 the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among the thorns which grew up and choked the plants so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew, and produced a crop, some multiplying 30, some 60, and some a hundred times. And then Jesus said, whoever has ears to hear, let him hear. When he was alone, the 12 and others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, the secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those on the outside everything is said in parables, so that they may be ever seeing, but never perceiving, ever hearing, but never understanding. Otherwise they might turn and be forgiven. Then Jesus said to them, don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? The farmer sows the Word. Some people are like seed along the path where the Word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the Word that was sown in them. Others, like seeds sown on rocky places, hear the Word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the Word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seeds sown among thorns, hear the Word. But the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things come in and choke the Word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the Word, accept it, and produce a crop some 30, some 60, and some 100 times what was sown. I don't know if other people had a similar experience to me growing up, but I felt like several of my friends had those magic eye coffee books. Does Anybody know what I'm talking about? If I just say that a Magic Eye coffee book. What they are, are. These were books in a time before the iPad, when people needed to be entertained by things, there were books that were full of these things. You know, I'm talking about like. And the thing about these is if you looked at them a certain way and you squinted your eyes and you took the book and you moved it close to your face and away from your face and then you looked another place and then looked a different place, what you will have just done is wasted a lot of time because no one has ever seen a picture on one of these in history. As far as I am concerned, these are a psyop by the government just to mess with people and just to see how much time. Because allegedly this one shows the Statue of Liberty in 3D. I don't see it. I could do it all day and not see it. I looked this up online and it was like, click to reveal the image. And I clicked it and I was like, this goes all the way to the top. And it's just, it's, it's simply. I don't see it. I find these to be kind of insane and weird. And I always used to get mad at my friends who'd be like, oh, you just gotta. And then you'll see it. I'd be like, no, it's not real. You guys are all lying to me specifically. But as we continue our series in the Gospel of Mark, we're getting into, in chapter four, some parables. And maybe the parables are kind of like that for you, right? Like certain teachings of Jesus are just weird and you're just, you don't understand what you're supposed to hear from it. You don't understand what you're supposed to get from it. It feels intentionally confusing. It feels kind of, you know, off kilter, if you will. And you know, we can do a lot of teaching to understand parables. In fact, like, there's a resource I like to use called the Bible Project. And they did a podcast series of, I think five or six one hour podcasts just talking about how to understand parables. So there is a lot that can be said about how to understand parables. And what would be not preferred is that we as readers of Scripture would come to the parables and we would kind of feel the way that I felt about those magic eye things where it's like, it's weird. I don't understand it. I'm not going to try to understand it. I'm just going to leave it and I'm just not going to worry about it because, you know, I'm not going to understand it. What would be helpful is for us to realize that Jesus wanted us to understand these parables. Jesus wasn't trying to be confusing. Jesus wasn't trying to lose people. In fact, this type of teaching was incredibly common in the first century. It was how rabbis taught. They would teach using stories. We have to remember this was a largely illiterate culture. So there was no idea of what we call personal Bible study, or no idea of go home and research this and read it. The idea of books had to be hand copied. So the idea of even owning one book was kind of crazy. Like it just wasn't something that tended to happen. And so these stories were ways of teaching that would have made people understand. And the people that Jesus was teaching would have been used to this type of teaching. And when he is teaching, and when Jesus is teaching in parables, he is teaching a way that would have been easily understandable to his original audience. He is teaching in a way that they would have latched onto, they would have been familiar with and they would have been ready to understand. And what that means is that Jesus wants us to understand kind of the parables, right? Like Jesus, when he taught in parables, assumed we would be able to understand. Now it's a little bit harder for us, like 1% harder for us because we live, you know, 2,000 years later and we have to kind of go back and maybe understand some reference points, right? But luckily it's coming from, you know, an agrarian farm based society and we still grow food and probably will, I assume, I don't know. And so we kind of understand a lot of the metaphors, we understand a lot of what we're reading. And honestly, with most parables we're able to kind of get to the point of what they're saying because that's one of the two things to know about parables. They generally have kind of one big point, right? You can usually summarize, yeah, that story is about, and then summarize it in one sentence pretty easily. And, and then the other thing to know about parables is that they are designed to help you understand the kingdom of God. They are designed to help you to understand the kingdom of God. And so Jesus has shown up on the scene and he is teaching about this new idea of how things are going to be done. And if you go back and you read through the beginning of the Gospel of Mark, the Gospel of Mark gets right down to business. It says, this is Jesus. He's the Son of God. And then it kind of shows him starting to teach. And then he comes into conflict with, like, the religious system of the day. And he actually, like, speaks against some of the ways that they saw things, some of the ways that they viewed things. And he. And so there's this kind of split that happens in chapter three where it says, like, you know, yeah, the synagogue leader started the plot to kill him. And then he kind of goes out and is really starting his own thing. And then these stories then become kind of a framework for the ethics of the new community of people that Jesus was starting. That kind of an idea of, hey, we've come out from this other thing. Here's what we're about. And we're going to establish it through stories, and we're going to establish it through kind of shared identity around stories. And this story that we start with in Mark 4 is called the Parable of the Soils. Now, it's a pretty simple story, but a couple notes before we kind of look at it again. First of all, Jesus sees it as important, and his disciples saw it as important. We know that because in verse four, in verse three, and in verse nine, Jesus says listen two separate times. He says. He first says listen, and then he ends it with, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. And so he's framing it with this idea of, hey, this is important. This is gonna seem like a simple story, but it's important. The other thing we know is, is that this parable shows up in all of what we call the Synoptic Gospels. So the Synoptic Gospels are Matthew, Mark and Luke, and synoptic means Saul, the same thing. And the reason we call them that is because the Gospel of John tends to have kind of a more theological bent to it, right? And so. But the three Matthew, Mark and Luke are kind of just more narrative driven and are more like stories about the teachings of Jesus. And all three of them share this story at some point. Why that's important is because this story was so common to the teachings of Jesus that when each of the disciples or the writers of the Gospels, because in some, Mark was a disciple of Peter, actually, and then Luke was somebody who kind of wrote up an orderly account, and Matthew, of course, was a disciple. But when they sat down to write it, they said, what were the important things that we need to capture from his teaching? And everybody went, oh, there was that story he told about the soils all the time. You know what I mean? Like, it would have been a common part of his practice if it made it into all three gospels. So this teaching was probably a common thing that he regularly taught. So with all of that in mind, the story is pretty simple. And it starts in verse three. Listen. Remember, he frames it with that. A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and 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 the thorns, which grew up and choked the plants so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew, and produced a crop, some multiplying 30, some 60, and some 100 times. And then Jesus said, whoever has ears to hear, let him hear. Now, again, I talked about. Sometimes we have to go back and we have to find our reference points. It's helpful to know that Jesus, original audience, would have found something kind of odd about this story, because in farming of the day now, commentaries are split on which was the common practice. But you wouldn't scatter seed and then let it grow among thorns. It was just kind of a bad idea to do that. So if you were scattering seed, either one of two things would happen. Either you would plow, you scattered seed, and then everything would be, you know, good soil because you wanted to maximize the possibility that you would get a good harvest because your livelihood depended on that good harvest. Or you would scatter seed and then you would plow immediately after to kind of get the seed down into the earth so that it would all be good, good soil, and would maximize your harvest, et cetera, et cetera. So no one would have done what the farmer in this story does. No, no one would have scattered seed and then just said, yes, some landed among the thorns. I hope it works out like that wouldn't have happened. Right. And so there is something that's kind of intentionally odd about this story that they would have noticed. And yet Jesus is saying, hey, this is important, what I just said. And then we get into this thing in verse 10 to 12, and we'll come back to it. I want to skip it for now, but we'll come back to it because it is kind of an odd saying of Jesus, but because in verse 13, he goes back and explains the parable, and his explanation is actually allegorical, which means he kind of gives all the different parts of the parable kind of their own meaning. In verse 13, he says, Then Jesus said to them, don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? The Father sows the Word. So we're supposed to know that the seed is the Word of God, right? Words about the kingdom of God, the teachings of Jesus in our context, like kind of what we learn from Scripture, right? And then verse 15, some people are like seed along the path where the Word is sown. So that means that the soils he's describing are people and how they respond to the Word of God, right? And again, none of this is really new to us, right? But. But it's helpful to kind of break it down, right? And then the next verse, as soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. So in the story, again, the birds are Satan, who comes in and snatches the word. Others, like seeds sown in rocky places, hear the Word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the Word, they quickly fall away. So the sun is troubles and persecution, and they kind of comes up and it scorches, kind of the. It scorches the growth that was happening. So this would have kind of had two meanings for Mark's audience, because Mark was writing, they think, to the Roman Church, right? So this was a church that was heavily persecuted, right? They had people among them who would be persecuted and walk away from the faith. And he's saying, that is going to be one of the responses. And then verse 18, still others, like seeds sown among thorns, hear the Word. But the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the Word, making it unfruitful. So the thorns are kind of the cares of this life. And then finally, others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the Word, accept it, and produce a crop some 30, some 60, and some 100 times what was sown. So we have to understand what the disciples would have understood in the moment. And I think there's two things that they would have understood. I said originally, most parables have one point. This one kind of has one and a half or two. And the thing that the disciples would have understood is summarized by Bible scholar Thomas Constable. And he says Mark's original readers would have found encouragement in this parable to receive the Word of God like good soil and to beware of the enemies that limit a Christian's fruitfulness, they would have understood it. Kind of the way you naturally read the parable, you say, okay, yeah, I want to be good soil. I want to be somebody who is good soil. But when we ask the question, how, what does this teach us about the kingdom of God? In the context of Mark, it gets a little bit interesting because, again, you kind of look at the narrative, and we've met Jesus. He started to teach, some people have received the word of God, some people have not received the word of God, and there's a group of people who want to kill him, right? And so if we think about that, it kind of brings out this second meaning to this. And another commentator puts it this way. The great emphasis in the parable is on the act of sowing the seed rather than on the soils into which it is sown. The kingdom of God breaks into the world even as seed which is sown on the ground. In the details about the soils, there is a reflection on the diversity of response to the proclamation of the word of God, but this is not its primary consideration. So what they're saying is Jesus is saying, you should not judge the kingdom of God by people's response to the kingdom of God. And this was helpful in kind of the first century because people thought that Jesus was going to primarily come in as a political and military leader. They thought, we're under the oppression of Rome, we're under the thumb of this other government. Jesus is going to come in and he's going to lead a revolution that's going to lead to us taking over, you know, biblical Judea, biblical Jerusalem, and he's going to reestablish the throne of David, and he's going to build kind of a country and a nation that. That is where God's people will live, and he will live among them. And, you know, and he will be. They will be his people, and he will be their God. Right? That was. That was a lot of people's vision for what was going to happen. And so it would have been pretty easy for people to go, maybe this isn't the guy. Because people. We just got started, and people seem to really not like him. You know what I mean? Like, he's just getting going, and there's a lot of people that already don't like him. I mean, he has 12 disciples, and the text tells us that. And the text tells us that a group of people started to plot to kill him. Like, we're very early in the game, and people are pretty Pretty upset about what's going on. But you kind of compare that against this other side where they have seen him heal people, they have seen him drive out demons, they have seen him teach in a way that makes sense and in a way that is helpful. And so he's kind of addressing this conflict within them with this story to say there will be a number of responses. And we know this was a struggle of the first century because even, even John the Baptist comes back to Jesus. He sends his disciples when he gets in prison, and he's likely going to die. And he sends his disciples to say, are you the one we're waiting for, or should we wait for someone else? And so we sense that John, as he faces death, is going, yeah, was that the guy? Right? And it's odd because John had this experience of baptizing Jesus and seeing the heavens open and say, this is my son, in whom I'm well pleased. But even he has this moment where he's like, man, am I sure that that was him? And Jesus response is, go and tell John what you've seen. Right? The dead are raised, the sick are healed, the blind receive their sight. Right? Like, you know that there is freedom from oppression. Right? And so this parable that we've just read is both kind of an encouragement for us personally, but also kind of has this backdrop of saying that the response to the gospel is not a commentary on the gospel. So now we understand the story as they would have understood it. But let's go back to the part we skipped, because I think it's really interesting. Verse 10. And again, when I first read this, I was thinking, you know, sometimes when you're preparing a sermon, you go, okay, we'll do that. We'll do that. Ignore that. Hope nobody asks about it because it's weird. And then we'll keep going on beyond that. So I just want to let you know as like, you know, I've spent an annoying amount of money studying scripture, and I still have those moments. Sorry, I was looking at my student loans this week. But, you know, so don't feel bad if you feel that way when you read it. But look at this together. Verse 10. When he was alone, the twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, the secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside, everything is said in parables so that they may. And this is a quote from Isaiah 6, 9, 10. So that they may be ever seeing, but never perceiving, ever hearing. But Never understanding otherwise they might turn and be forgiven. So Jesus is quoting, like I said, Isaiah 6, 9, 10, which is a story about the judgment on the people of God who have let religion cloud their experience of a true and living God. And he's saying, these people have gotten so caught up in religion that they have hardened their hearts to actually meeting Jesus. And one of the commentaries, the Inter Varsity Press Commentary, does a great job kind of summarizing both worlds. It says in both cases, in the Gospel of Mark and the book of Isaiah, the institutions of God's people had proven resistant to doing the will of God. In Isaiah, the places of worship had been corrupted so that the practice of religion masked the sin of the people. Even the offerings they made to God were an expression of their sin. That's Isaiah 1, 10, 17. In Mark, the synagogues to which Jesus took the good news, good news about the kingdom of God had turned against him. His message was no longer welcome there. And they had abandoned. And he had abandoned the synagogues as a place to proclaim and demonstrate the Gospel. And as I studied this passage, something really kind of neat stuck out to me because I asked myself, what was the difference between the people who had hardened their hearts and those who had come to Jesus? And the difference was that when those who had hardened their hearts heard something that they didn't understand, when Jesus didn't match their expectations, they looked at Jesus and they said, he's wrong. Right? That they went, when Jesus didn't match who they thought Jesus would be, they looked at Jesus and say, there's something wrong with him. There's something wrong with, he must not be the guy, because he doesn't match who I thought he would be. Whereas those who end up coming to Jesus, those who are receptive to Jesus, when they hear something they don't understand, they say, you know what? I have something to learn. I have something to learn. There must be some new thing I have to come to understand about Jesus. And the difference between these two people is that the group of people who come to Jesus in this story are people who have said, you know, I don't know if they were truly humble about it or just like, fake humble about it, right? But, you know, I don't know if they came up and they said, Jesus. I totally understood the parable. First of all, really, really great work, really loved it. I get what you were saying, but I have friends, and they were confused, and they're here with me, and they need you, not me. They need you to explain. I don't know if it was like a fake humility or an actual, like Jesus. Help me to understand what you're saying. The point is they were willing to humbly come to Jesus and they were willing to say, I don't yet understand what you said. I don't yet understand what you taught. And in just doing that, in just doing that, they have made a choice to humble their hearts before Jesus. They have made a choice to say, I have something to learn about how you would have me to live our lives. So we understand what the first century was meant to say. But let's take a minute and let's talk about us, right? Let's evaluate kind of our soils, if you will. So, like looking at the verse, let's make sure we understand kind of each of the soils and we'll talk about it. So the first idea is the seed along the path going back to verse three, a farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and eat it up. And then verse 15, he explains it. Some people are like seed along the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. What this looks like today for us is if you've decided that God could never blank, right? If you've decided that God wouldn't want me to blank, God simply wouldn't want me to blank. And you've just decided that that's true about you no matter what, and that you will never do this and you will never do that. And then what happens to. To us is that we make enough of those decisions and we say, well, Jesus could never do that with me. Jesus could never do that with me. He could never do that with me. And we leave, as we leave this tiny little box of things that we're okay with Jesus doing, and then we kind of hold our tiny little box and we say, jesus, why won't you use me? It's like you've given me like three and a half options. You know what I mean? You've already decided all the ways that I could use your life. You've already decided all the ways I could use your life. You're not coming with humility, right? You've. You've decided that things are true about you, that you've never stopped and asked me if those things are true about you. But, but all of the options for the ways that God can produce a harvest in your life, you've. You've allowed Satan to kind of snatch them away. And then you've presented what's left and you've said, man, why aren't any of these working out? And I feel like sometimes Jesus is going, man, you've already decided what the options are. So. So even if I had something for you that was clearly for you, then. Then you wouldn't even be able to see it because you've already decided it couldn't even be possible, right? Like, well, I'm just not somebody who can work with kids, really. I mean, I think you'd figure it out. I. I don't think I'm particularly good. I mean, they scare me. What if they don't like me? I don't. I don't think I'm doing a particularly good job with mine. I don't think it's a product I should export. You know what? You know, I mean, they're doing okay, but, you know, but like, I get that feeling. But, like, listen to the worldview you've given yourself when you make a decision like that. You said, oh, I can never work with kids. Kids are most people, right? Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's just based on math, I think. I don't know. I haven't thought about it that much, but you know what I mean? Like, if I've decided I'm just not going to work, I'm just not going to work with anybody under 13 or under 18 or under 36 or under, you know, like, we've closed off a whole section of what God could do for us because we've said, I could never do this, right? Like, oh, I could never get involved in this way because I could never go to a small group because what if they make me talk? You know? I mean, I could never. And. And, you know, and it's like we create this small little window where God can work in our lives, and then we get mad that God isn't working in our lives. And Jesus is saying, what you've done is you've allowed the word of God to be snatched away by decisions that you made. Right? And I think there's a couple ways that this happens, right? We get addicted to our comfort. I worked hard for this. God wouldn't want me to give it up. My favorite part of Don and Norma Tolan. Just let me know who they are. They're missionaries to Papua New Guinea. Norma has passed. Don is still with us. But I sat down with them at GCC and we recorded their testimony. And Don said, it just stuck with me because like, they were missionaries when you got to the mission field via boat, and, man, that had to be tough. Yeah. I mean, like, putting all your stuff on a boat and you have so long to think about how you feel about this decision, you know, I mean, you're just like on a boat, you know, going across the Pacific. And Don said, I had this great job. I forget where he was working, but, you know, kind of corporate job, pension, et cetera. And he said, and I remember sitting on our property and there was an oak tree on our property. And I said to myself, like, I'm going to watch this oak tree grow for 30 years. And this is where we're going to establish ourselves in Lancaster County. And then he was called to the mission field in Papua New guinea. And that was how he ended up spending his life. He walked away. He and Norma walked away from all of that to go to Papua New guinea. Because he allowed God to mess up his plan. He allowed it to be possible that God would make him uncomfortable. And his story became like. And imagine if he had not all of the missions work he had done would be snatched away by comfort. But the other thing. The other way this happens is hardship, right? Somebody tells you about. Somebody tells you something about yourself, and you just believe it, right? Like, some of you guys grew up in families and you. And you hear stuff like this where they say, oh, my sister was the smart one. My brother was the smart one. I was the dumb one. And that means I can't really study the Bible because I don't really do books, and I don't really do study, and I'm just not, like, smart like other people. So I can't be involved or I can't write, I can't teach. I can't, you know, however you finish that sentence, right, you've decided because of something that someone said to you when you were 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 years old, how you're going to live the rest of your life. And maybe you never thought about it spiritually, but isn't it possible that Satan stole something away from you that could have been and can be not could have been, right? And can be something where you find joy, something where you find, you know, peace, and something where you find what Jesus would do in your life, right? You know, you see this honestly happen with people who struggle with addiction, right? Like, I remember when we. We were doing. When I was in college, we did ministry with this guy named Brian Bolt who ran a halfway house in Pittsburgh. And he used to say, you know, some of the Best leaders I've ever met are drug dealers. And his point was that these guys are running logistics empires that they're running, you know, profit and loss statements that they're managing kind of a, you know, basically a corporation. They're just doing it in the world. They're just doing it under the influence of Satan. And what happened was those leadership gifts were there, and somewhere early in their life, Satan stepped in and snatched away the ability for that to be used any other way because of their addiction. And one of Brian Bolt's beliefs was that if we could get these guys kind of off the street and committed to Jesus, we'll have some of the best leaders we can imagine. And I truly believe that there's all sorts of things that where Satan comes in and he steals before something could even begin to develop. But then we go to the rocky soil. Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. And then verse 16 explaining it, others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive 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. Now, friends, if you follow Jesus for any length of time, eventually reality is going to smack up against your faith, right? Like, I hope and pray that it is not traumatic or terrible or as bad as things get. But you are going to run into a moment where you have to decide, do I still believe that God is good? Do I still believe that God is good? Do I still believe that God is good and cares about me? And when you hit that moment, you are ultimately faced with a choice. You can either say, God, you are not good, or you are not there and I am out of here. Or you can say, I must have something to learn about who God is. I must have something to learn about who God is. And I say this all the time. An unfortunate reality of life is I have learned more about Jesus. My faith has gotten deeper and my roots of my faith have gotten deeper in times of suffering than they ever have in joy. And I have understood who Jesus was. I have understood that he cares for me and walks with me and loves me in those moments, more so in moments where things are all good. And when we make the choice to say, God, you are good, even if I don't understand it, you are good, even if I don't think it's fair, you are good even if I definitely wouldn't have signed up for this, you are good. Even if I look at my friends and my neighbors and my family members and I wonder why they get to have a normal life and I don't get to have that. You are good. Even though then what happens is when we make that choice, we begin to discover the ways in which God is working in our lives. We begin to deepen our roots in the faith. We begin to learn about who Jesus is. We begin to see the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And then the really cool part that happens is that in some cases, well, in all cases, if we want to. But I always am careful to say this. I'll explain it after I say it. In some cases, we get to use the comfort we receive from God for the good of other people down the road. Because there is nothing more valuable when you're suffering or when you're going through a difficult time for somebody to look at you and not add silver lining, to not try to, like, make you think about it differently or something to say, yeah, that's hard. I've been there. That's hard. I've been there, and I'm so sorry you're going through that. And to just feel the companionship of another person who's actually felt what you're feeling, who can actually describe your feelings, who has actually felt the loneliness you feel, who has felt the fear you feel, right? And there's so much value in that. And I think that's why in First Corinthians, the apostle Paul says, calls God the God of all comfort. And he says he comforts us in our afflictions so that we can comfort one another with the comfort we ourselves have received in Christ. And so what I said I was going to say, but then didn't say, is that sometimes when we go through difficult times, God allows that not to be wasted. One of the beautiful things about suffering is that we can present it before the throne of God and we could say, God, use even this. And our God is so good and so kind that he allows it to not be wasted. He allows it to be used for the good and the comfort of others. And the reason why I say sometimes is if you are not at a place in your story where that is true for you, yet God is not expecting that from you. God is not going, hey, I really need you to get around to using those bad times for the good of other people, right? Sometimes we could see God as this, like, angry, mean God who's just, hey, buck up, feel better about it, right? Like, that's not what's Happening. What's happening is God is a redeemer. And God constantly redeems and gives us a chance to take the things we have gone through and use them for the good of others. So we have to make the choice. Do I decide that God is not good, or do I say, I have something to learn? And then next, the thorns. Other seed fell among thorns which grew up and choked the plants so that they did not bear grain. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the Word. But the worries of life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. See, this one doesn't even need an explanation. Other things get in the way, right? We get into a world where we say, God, I have some room for you over here, God. We'll work it out. We'll try to fit you into the. Fit you into the schedule if we can manage it. The worries of life win. The desire for wealth wins. Other desires win. And our faith doesn't grow. And I find this verse so interesting because if you look at the story, other than the one that produces fruit, the seed that fell among thorns is the only one that lives through the encounter but just doesn't grow right. It says, but it choked the plants so that they did not bear grain. So if we were to apply very specifically, what Jesus is saying to us is it's possible that we have a faith that is dead because our life is too crowded for God to work in our lives. And we sit in church every week and we say, man, I don't know what they're talking about up there. They're talking about praying. I feel like I'm leaving God a voicemail. Like, hey, God was wondering if you can get back to me about that job interview. It was my third voicemail. Maybe you're not getting them. Maybe change your number. I don't know what's going on, right? Like, and, you know, and it can feel like, you know, people talk about feeling the Holy Spirit. I don't know what that means. People talk about, you know, God speaking to them. I don't really feel like God speaking to me. Maybe your life is crowded, and maybe it's helpful for you to look and say, are there places where I've allowed my life to get too busy, where I haven't created space? And I understand that this is a hard conversation to have with ourselves, right? Because it's like when we say, all right, I gotta save money this month, and we look at our expenses and we see like, you know, Netflix and Hulu and Disney plus, and we're like, well, it's none of those, you know what I mean? Like, gotta watch my tv, you know, or whatever that is for you. Right? Like, it's definitely. It's definitely not that. Right? Like, and, you know, and I understand that's how it can feel. Like when I say we have to make time and space for God, it can feel like, man, where do you want me to do that? You know? But the truth of Scripture is that our faithful feel dead if we allow our heart to be overcrowded. Our faith will feel like it never grows if we allow our life to be overcrowded. So finally we have the good soil. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew, and produced a crop, some multiplying 30, some 60 and some 100 times. And then, as Jesus explains it, others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it and produce a crop, some 30, some 60, and a hundred times, some 100 times what was sown. And the verse we skipped and comes back and then came back to gives us. I kind of mentioned it as we were there, but gives us the posture. And I love this quote from one of the scholars. It says, if the kingdom of God has come in an unexpected way, then those who receive it must accept a word that contradicts their hopes and act on this Word in some manner and persevere in embracing the Word when other avenues of fulfillment are open to them. So we have to choose a humility that brings our whole lives before God and over and over and over again, says Jesus. I don't understand. Help me to understand or to quote somebody whose son was healed from demon possession in the scriptures, God, I believe, but help my unbelief, right? And that we are invited into that process of growth and it is not something that we should feel bad about. People get worked up about this. They're like, oh, yeah, I know Jesus isn't happy with me. What are you talking about? Jesus is tremendous. That's the whole point of the cross, is that Jesus is tremendously happy with you. That at the moment that you accepted Jesus, that the moment you said yes to Jesus and no to yourself, that something happened in the courts of heaven and that you were justified before the throne room of God, made just as if I'd never sinned. Right? And that you are seen as righteous before the throne room of God. That Jesus sees you as good, Jesus sees you as complete. That all of your sin was future tense when he died on the cross and that it is all forgiven in the blood of Christ. Jesus is happy with you. However, we are given the opportunity to bring our lives before Jesus and work on ourselves and the Bible says, work out our salvation with fear and trembling, or live up to what we have already attained. Right? That we enter into that process where Jesus continues to work on us and continues to change us into his image, and that we are invited into that process for a lifetime, not by a God who is disappointed in us and waiting for us to get better, but by a God who loves us and sees the life we could have on the other side of the work of His Holy Spirit, on the other side of the work of conviction and change. So with that in mind, let's bring our lives before Jesus together. Have you let Satan snatch something away? Is there some decision you've made that's keeping God from working in your life? And how we do this is we bring kind of all of our assumptions before Jesus and we say, jesus, is this true, or is this just a decision I made? I thought about that. This week, Angela Licata runs Bible to school right in this building, and she runs it downstairs. And right now they have 12 kids. And the reason they have 12 kids is because they're only allowed six for every volunteer that they have. And they have a wait list of kids who want to come from over at Lafayette elementary that they have to say no to because they only have two volunteers. And I was like, man, that's a shame. And then I was like, you know what? I got an hour on Tuesdays. I don't think I'm particularly good at this, but I got time. I got a pulse, and I got a pulse, and I can be downstairs. You know what I mean? Those are the two qualifications, right? And so I'm just telling you, applying this to my life, I can get out of my own way. I don't particularly think I'm good with children. I'm not funny to children, which is devastating for me. And, you know, it's not an area that I feel like I am great at, but I can show up and I can do it. And I can let God work in my life in some way. I cannot let Satan snatch away a ministry to children because of who I believe myself to be. Secondly, are you going through something that might make you turn away and what if instead you let your roots push through? What if you brought that to Jesus and you said, you know what? It's not fair, but he's still good? It's not fair, but he's still good. And what if you understood that Jesus isn't asking you to feel good about it? I hear this from people all the time. Like, I know other people have it worse. And one of you is going to say it to me and think, like, I'm getting mad at you and I'm not. But it is something that drives me crazy because people are like, oh, I know other people have it worse. And it's like, is that the game we're playing? Is that what we're going for? I know other people. So the only person that's allowed to complain is the person who has it the worst. Like, right. Like, I don't know who that person is. Things are bad for him or her, you know? But, like, is that the only person who's allowed to complain? And is that how you view God? That God is like, well, you know, other people have it worse. That's not who God is. God loves you and cares for you and walks alongside you and understands you. The Bible says he was tempted in every way but did not sin. It says that the Word became flesh and made its dwelling among us. Jesus didn't do that to tell you to stop complaining. He did that because that's who he is. That he came down and walked alongside us, that he lived the life that we live, that he. That he suffered the ways that we suffer. And he came to understand us and know us. So we can say, God, I don't think this is fair. God, I don't think this is right. We're free to struggle within the confines of the Holy Spirit. We are free to bring our suffering and our challenges to God. And what if instead of choosing to turn away, what if when suffering breaks all of our rules, instead of turning away, we said, I still have something to learn about you because I don't understand this, and I don't think I will until I'm in heaven. But I'm willing to wrestle with it. Is your faith choking? Is it time to clear some thorns, some busyness, some challenging things in your life? And do you need to kind of lay it out like a budget and say, where am I losing time? Where am I losing energy? Where am I losing, you know, myself in ways that is causing my faith to choke? Or maybe you simply need to humbly come to Jesus and say, jesus, what does this mean for me? Right? That's kind of like step 0.5 to just come to Jesus and say, jesus, I want to apply your word to my life. What does this mean? For me. Let's pray together as we get ready to close in song. Lord, we thank you. We thank you that you are good and kind and that you work on us and that you change us. We thank you that you love us through this. We thank you that as believers, Lord, we are made righteous in your sight, but we are invited into a process where we reflect you more and more and more. And, Lord, as we worship together in community, Lord, let this be a joyous reflection, Lord, that you are transforming us into the soil that you would have us be. And, Lord, that as we submit ourselves to that work, Lord, that you, in your goodness and your kindness will walk alongside us, will comfort us and will strengthen us and guide us. And we ask that you would do it. We ask that we submit ourselves. We ask that you would work on the hard edges of our heart, Lord, and you would soften us to what you want to do. And we ask that you would just be with us today, be with my friends today as we process this, and be with us as we go out into the world, that we would be people to say, Jesus, help me to understand what you would do in my life. Help me to clear the thorns away. Help me to look at those places where Satan has snatched away parts of of my lives, parts of my calling, parts of my life. And Lord, let me to choose to sink deeper roots, Lord, by asking, what would you teach me through this? And Lord, I ask that you would work on each of us as you see fit and as you know to be right. We ask all this in your name. Amen.