This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. We return to the gospel of Luke chapter 8. I delight in you who are still here. The gospel of Luke chapter eight. And I'm going to start at the beginning of the parable and this time read it all the way through. Picking up in verse four, this is the reading of God's word. And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, a sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot. And the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock and as it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundred fold. As he said these things, he called out, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, to you, it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others, they are in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. Now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God, The ones along the path are those who have heard, then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy, but these have no root. They believe for a while and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, They are those who hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience. This is the reading of God's word. Join me in prayer. Our Lord, we pray now that the word of life would bear fruit in us. We pray that we would be that good soil and that you would cause great fruit to spring up in us. Help us to do justice to your word and to do justice to this time you have given us to spend in it. We ask for your help. We pray this in Jesus's name, amen. So this scene is the inner circle. Not you guys, but close, right? This scene in Luke's gospel is now the inner circle. The crowds have gone away. Not that funny, dog, but. The crowds have gone away. They may have gone away confused, but still, They went away and now the dust settles. The clamor quiets down and the disciples have approached their master. They come to him. They say, what did that mean? And Jesus is pleased to share with his disciples the meaning of this mysterious parable. Don't lose sight that this scene right here, it is the place of privilege. Maybe we should name PM service that, the privileged service. Verse 11 said this, now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. Even in this brief verse, you see Jesus's esteem for the word of God. The Word, like those seeds, is the source of life for Christians. By the Word of God, we learn who God is and we learn what he has done for us. The Word of God is how we find new life in Jesus Christ. The word of God is the means by which we are grown. It is the means by which we are transformed. It is the means by which we are encouraged. It is the means by which we are convicted. The importance of the word of God, it can hardly be overestimated. So the seeds are the word of God. And the parable is going to then go and show us how the word interacts with people of different types, when it is received by people of different types. Verse 12, talking about the seeds on the path. He says, the ones along the path are those who have heard. Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved. Jesus paints a picture that is unfortunately common human experience. If you've been a Christian for much length at all, these pictures will not be unusual to you. Everywhere the word goes, there is interference. Everywhere the word goes, there are challenges to its proclamation and to its reception. Jesus is saying that for some people, The word is never able to even begin to take root because it is snatched away by the devil. And if the word of God, if the life-giving word of God is snatched away, then also the regular way that God saves people has been snatched away. I can't help but think of places like China where you have a mighty government opposed to the faith. The Bible and the faith itself are censored and outright prohibited. The result, unfortunately, being that the word of God is snatched away or prevented from ever taking root in people who live under Chinese rule. Jesus is not saying something that we haven't witnessed. The devil And many powers of this world are intensely focused on preventing the proclamation and spread of the word of God. Those are the seeds on the path. Verse 13, the seeds on the rock. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root. They believe for a while and in time of testing, they fall away. Jesus paints another picture that unfortunately we are undoubtedly familiar with. He says that some people, they love the word of God. They respond to it. They seek to live in light of it for a little while. It turns out their reception of the word is short-lived. Their reception of the word is shallow. So when trials come their way, when persecution comes their way, their initial enthusiasm is not enough to sustain them. And so they fall away. There's something tragic in this picture, isn't there? It's tragic that joy can never wither. It's tragic that zealous people It can fall away, but so many of us have seen it to be the case, haven't we? We have examples from within this family. How someone starts is not the same as how they finish. And it is, the prize is at the finish line. Then there's the seed among the thorns, verse 14. And Jesus says, and as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. So in this case, external factors again thwart the fruitfulness of the person. There's this initial response to the word, but the world crowds out the word. This time, it's not trials that it takes. It's the gradual, creeping influence of the world. The factors that Jesus cites, they're so convicting. He forces us to look at the effect that certain things have on the work of God in our lives, things that we may not want to look at otherwise. He says the cares of life. Should I turn that off? Is that going to bug you guys? Pause. This is a valid concern of life. Thank you, Nathan. Okay. So where were we? The cares of life. The cares of life. Some of you worry perpetually, don't you? You worry about really important things. You worry about your family's wellbeing. You worry about the state of the world as it seems to fall apart around us. You worry about your health, because it's getting worse all the time. You worry about your finances, about how you're going to pay for all the bills. You worry about jobs. the lack of them, or the trials of them. There's so many things, important things to worry about. Now, on the other hand, some of you may be known to worry about unimportant things. We do that, don't we? We get all worked up about things that You ask us a month later, and even we wouldn't say they were all that important anymore. But in that moment, oh, they are all important, right? And whether your worries are about important things or whether your worries are about unimportant things, have you considered that the way you worry might be choking out God's work in your life? Have you considered that you're spending all your energy worrying and you're leaving little to nothing for what the Lord would do in you? Jesus also cites the riches of life as a negative influence. Oh, we are so blind to this sometimes. So often we assume that riches are pure, universal blessing. They are good and they're good all the time. If I asked you, do you want a hundred bucks? 10 times out of 10, what would you do? You take a hundred bucks, right? We assume riches are good all the time. And you can get from scripture the truth that it is God that blesses us with wealth. But if you read the rest of the scriptures, you also find that there's a very real way in which riches are a pitfall. Proverbs 30 verse eight can talk about, it can warn us that riches may lead us to deny the Lord as we lose sight of our need for him. And Jesus here is saying that riches may be choking the work of God in your life. That's some people on the one hand are just consumed with earning money. On the other hand, it's the person who's simply self-sufficient because of all the wealth they have. Don't assume that riches are always a blessing. Riches can be a great obstacle to godliness. And then Jesus, just to make things harder on us, he cites the pleasures of life as a threat. Pleasure? When is pleasure a threat, right? Pleasure's good all the time. It's not how he describes it. There's a way to misread this. You hear the word pleasure, and at least for English, it's somewhat neutral. Food is pleasurable. A warm bed is pleasurable. Soccer is pleasurable. But the Greek word in the Bible, when it's talking about pleasure, it's strongly negative. The pleasures that are described in the Bible with this word, they describe them as waging war against the Christian soul. These pleasures, they undermine the Christian's resolve to live for God. And these pleasures are something that time and time again, we choose them and we choose them over and against the will of God. Cares, riches, pleasures. It turns out pleasures too can inhibit and oppose God's will for us. The common thread among all these is perhaps the way that earthly concerns can take priority over spiritual concerns. It's not that earthly concerns aren't real. And it's not that earthly concerns don't take a substantial amount of time and energy. But can't you see the problem when earthly concerns supplant spiritual concerns? There is a big problem. when our concern for our God, when our concern for our discipleship and following after the Lord Jesus Christ, when that's been replaced by concerns for this world. It's a big problem. Ideally, we are living out our spiritual calling through our earthly situations. But sometimes we replace our spiritual calling with our earthly situations. When we replace God's call with our earthly priorities, we find that the Word of God is choked out. The Word of God is meant to bear fruit in our lives. But we can prioritize the Word of God in so low a place that the fruit never comes to maturity. You see this, you see this in the person who says, I just don't have time to read my Bible anymore. I'm too busy. Okay, you might not be able to spend an hour at a time in the Bible, but having no time at all is almost never the case. It's like if someone told you, hey, I've got no time to eat at all, but they still find a way, don't they? They still find a way to eat, and likewise, you can find a way to feed your soul. Even when your schedule and your life and your circumstances are not ideal. I know in my personal experience, and I bet you this is yours, haven't there been times when you were surprised by how much benefit you can get from the word of God when you were earnestly seeking it, even in the midst of a crazy life? There are times I think that's when I get the most benefit out of it, when I have chosen to fight to make sure that I am still in the word of God. Brothers, sisters, don't be surprised. God is pleased to regularly feed his people if they will but seek him in faith. I don't know how much time you have, but I know you have enough time for the Lord to bless you. You see these choking priorities as they come out in church life too. Oh, I don't come to church anymore because fill in the blank. My work life is crazy. My kids have sports. They have activities. My weeks are so difficult that I just want a day off. If you just take those by themselves, none of those reasons are outright bad, but don't you see how just like the thorns, you can almost watch them creeping creeping, creeping tighter and tighter around the work of God in your life until they'll choke it out altogether if you'll let them. And then Jesus goes to the seed in the good soil. Verse 15. As for that and the good soil, they are those who hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience. At last, at last we get to see the word of God when it comes to good soil. This person holds onto the word of God in an honest and good heart. In faith, they cling to God's word. In faith, they cling to the promises. In faith, this person submits to God's will for their life. In faith, this person perseveres. Where many responses to the word of God are marked by being short-term, This person is in it for the long haul. And this person clings to the word of God with an honest and good heart. That's not to say a perfect heart, but it is a heart that God is working in. And because of his work, it is a heart that is inclined to truth, to goodness. Out of that heart orientation that God has given him, this person lives according to the God, the values now ruling their heart. And then when you have this kind of person with this kind of heart, the word of God does what it was meant to do. When you're talking agriculture, seeds, what are they meant to do? They're meant to be fruitful. Whether the seed was able to bear its intended fruit turns out to be the standard that we're measuring all these soils by. Could the seed be fruitful? And with this last person, finally there is fruit. The person clings to the word of God with a right heart and then bears fruit with patience. I think it's the temptation to view this good soil view almost like a magic trick. You know, you got some like magic orange seeds and you pour some water on them and shoots up and oranges are ready right away and the fruit just comes pouring forward in just a second. But Jesus adds that this person bears fruit with patience. Even in the case of the good heart and the believing person, the word of God still bears fruit over the course of time. It's a standard that we might be encouraged to remember, whether we're evaluating ourselves or evaluating one another. Fruit bearing always takes time. So be patient. What can we take away from this parable? Looking out on the world, Jesus gives us categories to understand what is going on. We can expect that the life-giving word of God will be opposed and it will be prevented. We can expect that it will be received shallowly by some. with their joy quickly withering away when times get hard. We can expect that the word of God will be received by others only to be slowly choked out by the concerns of this world. And we can expect that the word of God will be planted in the hearts of those who believe it and cling to it. And as a result, much fruit will be produced. When we look out at the world, we see these categories playing out in front of us all the time. But this parable is not just a call to look out, it is in fact also a call to examine yourself. You have to look at yourself. Soil in a field, it can't really do anything about whether it's good soil or it's bad soil, but we, we have a role in determining what kind of recipient we will be. If you perceive, if the grace of God has allowed you to perceive that you have received a shallow gospel, a health and wealth gospel, a prosperity gospel, then the Lord would call you to repent of that. Repent of the shallow games that men play with the gospel and seek the one and true gospel in all its beauty, and in all its challenging depth. If we perceive that our life is filled with the world's creeping concerns, if we find that we are less of a disciple and more of a consumed citizen of the world, then we need to repent of our broken priorities. Perhaps you start simply by recognizing the thorns that are filling your life, recognizing the way that they are crowding into God's work. And then you need to do battle with those thorns. You need to do battle with those broken priorities. Or else your effectiveness for God might be choked out. And clearly, clearly every Christian desires to be the good soil. We want to be the good soil where the word of God bears all this fruit in our lives. We want that. So that means we have to act on that. We have to strive for a right heart. We strive for a right heart by filling our hearts with God's cleansing, life-giving word. We fill our hearts with that word and then we seek to live that word out. We, not someone else, not some generic Christian, we cling to God and we cling to his words in faith. Believing him that when he says that he is our highest good, it's true. Believing him when he says that he alone can satisfy our souls. And then we too, we strive to persevere. Following Christ is the most grueling marathon around. So Christian, don't be setting yourself up for a sprint. Set your heart on a finish line that lies just on the other side of death, and then run that race accordingly. If you have ears to hear, then hold fast to Christ. Seek the Lord, seek his will for you and expect that he will be pleased to work fruit in your life. Let's pray. Our heavenly father, we thank you for the place of privilege. We thank you that we are those who have the privilege of the scriptures. We thank you that we have your help in understanding them. Father, give us eyes to see our lives for what they are. Give us eyes to recognize where perhaps we have believed a shallow gospel and help us to repent of it. Give us eyes to see the things we have filled our lives with and whether they are in fact choking your work in our lives and help us to repent of that. Lord, we long to be that good soil We long to be able to look back on our lives at the very end and see the abundant fruit that you brought forward in us. Father, help us. Help us to cling to you. Help us to trust you. Help us to hold fast with a good heart. We desire to be those you bear much fruit through. Lord, please may it be so. We pray this in Jesus's name. Amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516 or visit our website gracenevada.com.