appreciate the good day in the war today I want to preach to you about the parable of the sower. The Bible says the same day when Jesus out of the house and sat by the seaside, great multitudes were gathered together unto him so that he went into a ship and sat and the whole multitude stood on the shore. He spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow, and when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. Some seeds fell, I'm sorry, some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth, and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth. And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprung up and choked them. but other fell into good ground and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some 60, and some 30. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. Thank you for standing tonight. You can be seated. Lord, I come to you once again and ask you, Lord, to help your servant tonight. I thank you for your presence and I pray that you give us direction in the preaching. Lord, speak to hearts tonight. I pray that you'd give light and truth and wisdom in the preaching of the Word of God. We pray for sinners that are present throughout the week, that Lord, some precious soul would be saved. Help the man of God to follow and meet with us in this meeting, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. In chapter number 12, the previous chapter, there's several things that are taking place that convey to us about Israel's rejection of Christ, of his ministry, of his power, the scribes, the Pharisees, the hypocrites, are always trying to examine him in his ministry. And those disciples that walked with him, they're trying to find somewhat to accuse him of. And somehow, even to this day, As far as Christianity is concerned, sinners are still operating that way. They're all the time examining the man of God and watching those that claim to be Christians. And that says something to me, that I just can't live any way my flesh so desires. That I'm here as an ambassador of Christ. and I must exalt him and honor him in everything that I do so that I don't give excuse to sinners to find a reason to turn away from God. But yet they were hardened. They felt like because they were of the seed of Abraham that they didn't need to heed to the message of repentance And they rejected Christ as Messiah. In chapter 12, in verse number nine, he was in the synagogue and performed a miracle on a man of a withered hand. And they accused him and examined him. And the Bible says, The Pharisees, in verse number, I'm sorry, verse 13, then saith he to the man, stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth and was restored whole, like as the other. Why, you would have thought that the Pharisees would have been convinced with such an act of a miracle in the power of God. But the Bible says that they went out and held a council against him, how that they might destroy him. That's all through this chapter. I mean, the Bible says in verse 22, there was one brought to him possessed of a devil. blind and dumb, and he healed him insomuch that the blind and the dumb both spake and saw. A threefold miracle cast the demon out, caused him to be able to speak and opened up his hearing, but the Pharisees rejected him and said, he didn't do this, but by the power of Beelzebub, they're crossing a deadline with God. And God, Jesus is turning his back on them nationally. Some things are in transition. When you come to the end of this chapter, someone says to the Lord, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto them, and that told him who is my mother and who are my brethren. He stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren, for whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister and mother. He came unto his own, but his own received him not. And then some men smarter than me say the first couple of verses of verse 13, speak more than just a physical transition. The Bible says the same day went Jesus out of the house, and so He's turning His back on Israel, turning His back on them nationally. The Bible says he sat by the seaside. Now he's going to open up to the Gentiles, and he's going to send forth a sower and seed, and he's going to give us this parable. Great multitudes gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, sat, and the whole multitude stood on shore, and he spake many things unto them in parables. Now when he gives us this parable of the sower, the things that stand out to us here is about hearing the word of God. I want you to hear me tonight. There's a different hearing besides the physical ear. The real kind of hearing that'll change your life and save your soul and help you to walk with God. is the hearing that you hear with your heart. The hearing that humbles you. And you know that it is God that is talking to you. As he speaks the truth about hearing. He not only conveys that truth, but he says there is an evidence that you will know that the hearing has taken place. And if you have really heard God in the process of the whole miracle, you will produce the fruit of righteousness. Amen. Now, I think this whole thing of a hard seed being dropped in powder like ground and covered up and walk away from it, and it produces a tender little plant pushing its head up and trying to push that little crusty soil and then come up and pop its little head out and look up at the sunshine and every day you walk back and look It's a growin', and it's a growin', and it's a growin'. And eventually, there's little old blooms and blossoms, and eventually it turns into fruit. You can pull that fruit, take it in, boil them ears of corn, and pull it out, stack it up, and put about four or five sticks of butter and let it melt down. Put about three of them ears and salt and pepper it and go to town. Every time you chomp and feel that sweetness and taste it, you say this is good stuff. But it all started with a miracle. One little old hard seed. drop down into this earth and that dry powdered soil cover it up and you can turn and walk away and say it's all up to God now. And somehow there's a higher power that gets a hold of that little hard seed and sends a tender rain, makes that soil moist and somehow, I don't know what, but there's something in that soil that that seed really likes, and it loves that rain, and that nitrogen, and those warm rays of that sunshine, and it puts something on the table, and you say, ah, you know what I know about this whole thing? That God has worked a miracle by planting this seed. Now, he's speaking to people here And he's not talking to the sinners, trying to hear God. He's talking to the people. He's saying, as you go forth and sow. He's trying to say something to us preachers. He's trying to say something to Christian daddies and Christian mommas. You try to bear forth a witness. You try to open the Bible. You try to give instruction. about repentance and why we're sinners. You read to them little girls and read to them little boys. You ask a blessing over the table and there's light that comes into the house. And the Holy Ghost of God begins to finger down in the hearts of them children. Men of God come and they take the gospel. Brother Owens is planning here Us different preachers are planted in different places. We're trying to preach the gospel. We're just like that sower. We've got that little cloth satchel on our side. That thing, strap comes around our neck. We walk out into the fields. We reach down in there and we're casting that seed. We're preaching the word of God. So he's gonna help us with some things. He's saying, as you go forth, and this is the information for the multitude, this information is for the disciples. He said, lest you get weary in the way and get depressed. He said, you need to understand that all the seed that you sow forth, it's not gonna come forth with good fruit. And you have to understand that. And the first thing he talks about is the wayside hearer. And he said as you cast that seed, some of it's gonna land in verses three and four. He said it's gonna land on the wayside. And he said that when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside. And the fowls came and devoured them up. He said in verse number 19, in an explanation, he said, when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom. I want you to notice now, he's always talking and using that word heareth. So even the wayside hearer is someone that has heard, but he's not heard properly. And he heareth the word of the kingdom, and he understandeth it not. In other words, what that means is he doesn't put it together right. A sinner can't put it together right unless God puts it together. But I'm gonna tell you because of the condition of their mind and the condition of their heart, I wanna say this and I'm trying to be nicer tonight. I wanna be helpful tonight. I always wanna be helpful. But I wanna say to ya, listen, all of this stuff, you know why people got saved easier and more plentifully many years ago than they do today? Because we're in so much junk and garbage, people don't have time to slow down anymore. Years ago, when people farmed and spent a lot of time, they could hear a man of God preach two messages in a 30-day period. But that soil, that seed, and that preaching would work down in their heart as they hoed through the fields and as they heated those irons on the stoves that spent time and worked that washing, the Holy Ghost would work that preaching and scrub inside of them. We're running too much in these days. I don't know how to slow it down. Too much going on. Amen. Running for the kids and running for the wife. And we've got so many gadgets now, we think we'd have plenty of time. But we're worried so much about keeping up with everything. Our minds are clotted and our hearts are full of garbage and the seed that is sown falls on hard ground. He said as you go forth, what's wrong with my daughter? You may be saying. What's wrong with my son? What's wrong with you? Why don't you look at them? Why don't you see what you've given them to occupy their mind? Amen. Yes, sir. Amen. That's right. You can't put kids in front of a TV and give them computer screens and cell phones with all kinds of abilities to make contact. You say, preacher, my kids are in contact with camp meeting kids. Well, you don't know who camp meeting kids are anymore. You don't know what kind of influence. I mean, I'm not being mean tonight, but I'm just saying, I know I'm saved and my wife puts forth good fruit and I see encouraging things from my children that encourage me. But I'm gonna tell you something, the only person I can answer for here tonight is I don't know how he did it, but one day he borned me again. I probably didn't say that right, but I'm just telling you, he changed my life, amen. I'm telling you, listen, when I got saved, I wanted to get saved. You know what's wrong now, children, feel the pressure. They're raised in Christian schools and their moms and dads want them to get saved. And I'm not saying don't do it. I think those are good atmospheres. but somehow they feel that hot air breathing on the back of their neck that I want my boy, I want my girl to be saved and pray for my children. I'm gonna run them here and thrust them in a school and they feel that heat and they'll do what I did when I was nine years old. I felt the pressure. I went to an altar. Those kids in that big church told me that this was the way it worked. I walked up, said, I'm here to get saved, patted me on the shoulder, took me over to a Sunday school superintendent, said, Ronnie's come to get saved. You've heard all this a million times. and said, and so they took me over here and led me through the recipe, read the Romans Road. I answered right to everything. I said no when I was supposed to say no and yes when I was supposed to say yes. I made a profession of faith. Daddy was proud, I could see it standing in front. Mama was shining and I was baptized and I said I took care of all of that. but I'm gonna tell you something. There was some genes connected to Adam here, and it started producing a fruit. I'm trying to hurry for the next man of God, but I'm gonna tell you as we're preaching, seed is falling, and you need to understand something in this day. The ground is harder and harder, and when it lays on top of the ground, and it's resisted, just like Israel resisted it, By the time they say the last amen, and before you can pull the car door open, the foul of the air has come and plucked it off their hearts. Demons, demons have taken it away. So he keeps on. He says, let me help you preachers. He said you're gonna go forth now. And he said you're gonna sow and some of that seed's gonna fall and it's gonna end up, and it's gonna manifest to us. He said it's gonna fall on the stony places. And he pounds upon that in verse number 20. And he that receiveth seed into stony places, the same as he that heareth the word, an anon, which means in quickness, with joy receiveth it. Yet hath he not root in himself, and dureth for a while, when tribulation or persecution ariseth, because of what? Somebody's making fun of him? No. Listen, somebody's testing him for their faith? No. But he says, when persecution arises because of the word, pi and pi, He is offended. He's enticed to sin. He pulls out. Here's some seed that's fallen onto stony places. I used to think that was like little rocks piled up. But one man I read said, what it means is a rock shelf. He said, just a big rock shelf. And on top of that rock shelf, just a little bit of soil. And he said, as you go forth and sow, some of that seed is gonna fall on that rocky shelf. And being on a rock shelf, it's warmed much quicker by the rays of the sun. And it germinates fast. Since I've been saved and listened to many of you men of God preach, and I've read the Bible myself, I found out that real, real germination, I mean that produces fruit. It's normally not quick stuff. It's normally not quick stuff. It's stuff where God works and increases the heat on a sinner and brings him to a point. But this seed that's fallen on this rock shelf has germinated quickly and it's shot up. A lot of times, and I don't have a lot of reports to give, but I remember I was up in Virginia and I do this a lot of times. I can't help it. But when somebody makes a profession of faith and I've been somewhere else and preached and they said they got saved during the meeting, I always like to call back and check on that germination. I like to call back and say, that girl that said she got saved last month, how's she doing? How's she doing? That man, When I was with you last fall, they said they got saved in that meeting. How's that man doing? You said, preacher, you ought not do that. I do that in my own garden behind my house. When I sow seed, I watch it all the time. I mean, listen, I planted last week. I planned it a week ago. On Saturday we had a good rain. I hadn't looked at it before I left to come up here, but I'll guarantee you one thing. When I get back to the house on Friday, I'm gonna unload our car and put on my work clothes, and I'm going out behind the house. because I put some seed out there and I've been turning that soil and putting up them cane poles and I hauled all that mushroom compost and dumped it in by bucket loads and I took time to sow that seed and I've had it on my mind all week. When I get home just as sure as I can get out there, I'm going out there to see if anything's going on. I'm always like that. I'm always interested in that. I don't think you ought to get offended when somebody asks, I think you ought to be watching. Don't cool off too much just because Billy said he got saved last year. Hang with me now. Don't think it's all over just because Susie made a profession of faith three months ago in the Christian school. You need to be watching things. I'm here to tell you I don't care if you get saved at eight years old or 80 years old, the same Holy Ghost lives inside of every born again believer. There will be a germination take place. Something will happen. A little old sprout will pop up and say, Mama, things have changed for me. You remember how I used to sass you and talk back? I feel bad about that. I've had a few years of that since I've hit these teen years. And the Lord saved me. I want you to know I'm sorry. I used you to cut a tree limb, wore me out. And I'm sorry, I'm sorry for what I've done. I believe if they're nine years old and got born again, they might not know how to read and study like Brother Ken or Brother Roger. But I'm telling you, if there's any germination, they ought to be back there on the bed somehow, at least flipping the pages and looking at the Bible. There ought to be something going on. You ought to find them curled up in a fetal position every once in a while on top of their bed praying. I'll tell you, if a teenage girl got saved, she ought to get to the place where she walk in and say, Daddy, does this all look all right? I'm just, I used to like this blouse, but somehow, I just kinda don't feel, something's kinda bothering me about this blouse and I heard the man of God preaching about putting all that bright red lipstick and mama, do you want it or can we give it to the dog or do what? I don't want this anymore. I just don't feel right about this. I'm telling you it works. Amen. But all that fire stuff comes up real quick. And as soon as you get a preacher in here preaching truth of the word of God, that quick stuff will fold up. Oh listen, it'll wither up. And he talked about some of that seed's gonna be slung over into them briars. All those entanglements of the world. All that wealth. We got too much money occupying our minds in the Baptist church. That's right. I like money, you like money. We all like things, but the Bible says love not the world, neither the things in the world. And I believe the word things means stuff, things, however you want to read it. None of that. He's saying as you go forward, he said, you're thinking every time you're slinging something, you ought to be getting corn and beans, but it ain't gonna work that way. There's only 25%. There's only one of these. And he said, it's that that falls on the good ground. That that falls on the good ground. I'm gonna tell you something. So he's saying this to those preachers. He's saying this to those parents. Don't you just nail that little baptism certificate? The pictures of when your son and daughter got back and say, all that's done now. Listen, I know parents. that are trying to hang on to a profession, and listen, got boys 40 and 45 years old, still sipping Budweiser. But if you say anything, they say, preacher, I remember they got in. I remember, they're okay, preacher. Can I tell you something? If I go back Friday night, and I go out there to check that garden, and I don't see nothing, I may wait through the weekend, but if you think this old boy is gonna sit there all through the month of May and pull me up a five gallon bucket and turn it upside down and sit there and say, come on, half runners. Come on, peaches and cream. I planted you one day and I know you're in there. I know you're in there. I'm not gonna wait on that. I'm gonna consider that something wasn't right. Something wasn't right. Now you might write me off in witchcraft, but I plant according to the signs. That's right. And I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. I've got me a hoe that's pointed like a plow. I'm gonna go up there and I'm gonna consider all of that old stuff I planted two weeks ago. Something's wrong with it. I'm not gonna sit there all summer waiting for it to come up. My wife's already, and I've spent the whole afternoon this year looking for wide-mouthed cannon lids. We can't find them anywhere, but I've gotta get some if I've gotta steal them from off of some church members or something. I gotta have some, we gotta can some beans. We do that every year. and I'm a-waitin' on them beans and I'm not gonna spend my life hopin' on what was previously sowed. If there's no germination and no green plants and no fruit comin' out, if they're not prayin', if they're not pullin' up to God, if they're not runnin' to the altar, if they're not livin' righteously, you might as well nail her down. They're lost. I need to be born again. Amen. I think I'm done. Congregation stand. We'll sing together. Thank God for preaching.