Mark chapter 4 verses 1 through 20 today. As we continue through Mark, I'm going to start off with a word of prayer. Well we do thank you for your mercies upon us and granting us a new day in which we can enjoy you and give you glory as we hear your word spoken, as we are able to learn from your word. And through that, and all the expressions of praise unto you through song and through prayers, that we're able to live out a life that truly gives you glory. A life that reflects that hope. that it truly is finished in what you have done for us, Lord. That when you hung on that cross, and when you suffered the wrath, all the wrath of God upon you, you knew our sins as they were laid upon you, and you absorbed that wrath for us, your people, out of a love for us, and even more a love to your Father. And we are told that that was an act of obedience, and it truly was an obedience until the end, as she died upon the cross. The most shameful death known to man at that time, and the most horrible and bloody and painful death, and yet you suffered it all. Not because you were sinful, but because your people were, and we needed you as our Redeemer. And so we do give you praise and we want to praise you. We want to know more of you. And I ask that you give us ears to hear more of you and your truth. You have given us your word. which is your truth, a word that can sanctify us, and we ask that you do just that. As we listen, as your truth is spoken, and your truth alone, may we have eyes that see, and ears that hear, and minds that comprehend, and move us, give us a desire to want to live it out, so that we who are your people will live for your glory, And for those who have not yet seen you in all your glory, Lord, that you will cause their eyes to open. As this truth is made known, they will be turned to you and see your goodness and you as the only hope. And that your expression of being finished can be an expression that they can cling to, not based upon their work, but what you have done on the cross, that you will be glorified. Cause us to hear, Lord. Cause yourself to be glorified in you alone. Amen. I'm going to read Mark verses one through 20. I'm reading out of the New American Standard. And it says, And he, Jesus, began to teach again by the sea. And such a very great multitude gathered to him that he got into a boat in the sea and sat down. and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things and parables. And he was saying to them in his teaching, listen, Behold, the sower went out to sow, and it came about that as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and birds came and ate it up. Another fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. And after the sun had risen, it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. And other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it. It yielded no crop. And other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop, and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. And he was saying, He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And as soon as he was alone, his followers, along with the 12, began asking him about the parables. And he was saying to them, to you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God. But those who are outside get everything in parables in order. Now, while seeing, they may see and not perceive. And while hearing, they may hear and not understand, lest they return and be forgiven. And he said to them, do you not understand this parable? How would you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word, and those are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown. And when they hear immediately, Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. And in a similar way, these are the ones on whom the seed was sown on the rocky place, who, when they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy, and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary. Then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. and others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns. These are the ones who have heard the word and the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires of other things enter in and choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. And those are the ones on whom seed was sown in the good soil. And they hear the word, and they accept it, and bear fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. Amen. When we look at the Book of Mark, we call the Book of Mark or we call this the gospel according to Mark. And it's interesting, we call it the gospel. I was thinking about this last night. The word the gospel alone signifies something, does it not? It signifies the message, the good news. The preaching of that good news. And we call this book of Mark the gospel of Mark, the good news that Mark is telling us. Just like we call the gospel according to Luke, the gospel according to Matthew, the gospel according to John. When you think about it, what is that saying? What's that title alone telling us? It's telling us that Mark is communicating to us good news. And from the beginning of this book of Mark, that good news has been communicating has been about what or about whom? by Jesus Christ, Jesus and Jesus alone. So that when we think about Mark's book and as he writes it, we must realize that it's all focused on one central soul theme and one central soul person. Jesus, from beginning to end. Mark's gospel is no different, by the way, than all of scripture. From beginning to end is scripture. All of God's word is gospel in that it focuses us on Christ and Christ alone and the work God was going to do through him to redeem his people. And here Mark hones that down to us as he now introduces or as he has introduced to us this particular person, the one whom the gospel message is focused on, Christ Jesus. Having done that from the very beginning of his book, in which he highlights to us the coming of this man, Jesus, and the announcement that this one is Jesus, is the one who God has sent down to be the Son and to be that one. And immediately in his teaching, we begin to hear what that message that this one has for the world. And this is what Mark's message is to us, this message that Jesus has. As he says from the very beginning, the very first words that Jesus declared, the kingdom is at hand, the time is now, believe the gospel. Repent and believe the gospel. And that's his message. And that's, interestingly enough, that's all we hear about that message right there. And Mark then begins to unfold what exactly that means and the variety of stories he's told us. And little by little, Mark has been revealing to us who Christ is. Now, he's this one who has demonstrates great power and great authority in his teaching to the people and his power over demons and his power to heal afflictions and diseases and those who are lame and those who are blind and those who are mute. a power not only to heal physical illness, but more importantly, as he demonstrated in the life of one man who was a paralytic, a greater power to heal the soul of man who is sick because of his sin. As he declared to the paralytic, son, your sins are forgiven. And though the scribes question his ability to forgive sins, because only God can forgive sins, Jesus says, you're right. And he demonstrates to them, then by healing the man, his authority, and his power, and who he was, to declare, your sins are forgiven. See, this man, Christ, came not just to heal, not just to teach, but to be the one to declare your sins are forgiven to the people of God. And Paul has been revealing that to us all about who Jesus is, little by little versus through chapters one and through chapter two, make it to chapter three. And we encounter a very unique situation in chapter three, where now we begin to see people responding to Jesus. And this was a challenge that we saw in chapter three. For as Jesus walked up to the mountain and spoke to his disciples and called the special ones to him, we also begin to hear how others are reacting. Interestingly enough. We speak when we when we when we think about telling someone about the gospel, we we think that a reaction only is positive or a positive reaction is the only action that we we hope for. And when we don't see that, we see we say there's been no reaction to the gospel. But what we see from Mark when we see in the life of Jesus is really and truly every time the gospel is communicated, people respond to it. It's always responded to. What we don't want to see, what saddens our heart is some of those responses aren't right responses. We begin seeing that in Mark chapter three as his own family or the scribes come up to Jesus and they begin talking about him. From one hand, we have some that are saying, yes, this is Jesus. He's doing great things, but he's doing them because of the devil. He's been sent here by Satan. Jesus makes very clear that is not very logical. The fact that they would ascribe this power and this authority to Satan, Jesus shows, is illogical. That would mean Satan would be attacking himself and his own kingdom. As Jesus highlights, any kingdom divided is a kingdom that's going to fall. He emphasizes that to them and to the people. And yet, if he's not doing it by the power of Satan, and if he's binding Satan up and casting out these demons and exercising power, what has he been demonstrating? He makes clear. You can only rob the strong man in his house if you bind that strong man first. as he says, showing them it's not because of the man in the house I'm robbing his house. It's contrary to him. I have bound him first, demonstrating that I have come in the power and the authority of God because I am God himself. And his family shows up again. And they stand outside calling for him to come out. We've heard what they thought of him. He's crazy. He's gone mad. That Jesus has gone mad. Way too much learning. Something's up with that guy. We've got to get him back. Get him home. He's causing us shame. And as they call out for Jesus to come outside to them, he makes very clear to those who are around him, who are my family? Who are my family? And he points to those sitting around him as his family is outside. He says, those who hear and do the will of God are my family. They're my brother. They're my sisters. That's my mother. That is my family. The rest are outside. And as we see that presentation Jesus gives to us, as he begins to explain reactions to his teachings, reactions to his power, and we'll see that even more when he goes back to his hometown in chapter six, the strange reaction of others to all that Jesus is saying, even though they see so much power and authority being exercised. And we may begin to wonder. As Mark enters into that wondering why this is happening in chapter four, we see all over again that he's by the sea, beginning a new section again in Mark, a section that is one of two pure teaching sections in the book of Mark, in which there is a series of lessons that Jesus is teaching with nothing else going on, but just teaching. And each one of these two, the other ones in Mark 13, have a very specific theme to them. And this particular section's theme focuses on the kingdom of God. And God does that initially by showing reactions to that message of the kingdom. And some of those reactions aren't, are failed reactions. And he initiates his teaching with these parables to emphasize to us the failure or the failed reactions, the variety of responses. And though we may be left wondering from chapter three why so many different responses when it's so obvious what's going on, we begin to understand in chapter four what Jesus presents to us now, why the variety of responses. It stands as a warning to those of us who hear. There is always a reaction to the gospel message. How are you reacting? What is your reaction? Because only one reaction is the right reaction that will lead to life and lead to fruitful life in Christ. And that's what Jesus is highlighting to us, the reality that even though all are to listen, all are to hear, not everybody has ears to hear. We have a task to cause all to hear and pray that the world will look upon those who have ears to hear so that we can be ones who are faithful unto Christ in all that we do. Today, there's no difference. What Jesus is highlighting to the disciples way back then is no different than today. For we proclaim the gospel, we live it out to the world around us, and yet there's so many different reactions to that. And oftentimes we see all the more a hatred to that message. As people rise up against this truth and they want to reject it in so many ways, some violent, as we've seen violence throughout the history of the gospel and even today. And Jesus helps us understand why that is the case. And yet in doing so, he urges us all the more to continue proclaiming the message so all can hear. And that message has to be heard. It has to be heard by God's people. And as he begins, we see in verse one, he began to teach again by the sea. And again, as we highlighted before, when Jesus moves to the sea in Mark, it highlights a new section, highlights a new emphasis. And he's doing that by that emphasizing that Jesus is starting something new and he's by the sea and teaching. As we saw before, as he's teaching, there's a great mass of people that a great multitude that are amassing around him. and gather to him so much so that what does Jesus have to do to be able to teach this mass of people? He has to get into a boat, be pushed out a little way so everybody can see him and hear him, and he will not be jostled and touched and bothered in that sense, but he can focus on his main focus at this time. that is proclaiming and teaching people. Jesus came to teach, to teach the message of the kingdom, to teach the gospel and to live it so that we can follow that example and do the same. As he does so, as he's in that boat and is pushed out and we see the whole multitude was on the sea, on the shore listening, he begins teaching them and he teaches them in a certain way. He teaches them, there's two things that we need to know about how he's teaching us in this first part. First off, we hear that he's teaching us in parables, teaching them in parables, teaching many things in parables, which implies what we hear now, what we read in this section is just one of many parables he's proclaiming to the people. Now, what is a parable? A parable is a fictional story to communicate a spiritual truth, even though that story may actually be a picture of real life. It's not designed to be real life. It's a fictional story that is being used to proclaim a single soul truth, in this case, a spiritual truth. Now, parables are not unique to Jesus, are they? We know others have taught in parables prior to Jesus. In the Old Testament we see parables being used and often we see living parables where God calls his people to live out as an example. The prophets did that often. Ezekiel, even Jeremiah, had lives and God called them at certain points of their life to live certain ways to be a living parable to the people around them, to God's people. And so parables are not unique to Jesus, but we find Jesus uses them frequently, if not always. In this case, we see him proclaiming a parable that is about a farmer sowing seeds. And the focus in this parable seems to be on the fate of those seeds and the three types of soil. And what is the effect that happens or that is on these seeds as they're being cast by the sower? Now we'll look at the interpretation a little bit, but it's important for us to see what Jesus is communicating in this story as he communicates in parables. And then we also see the other element that we need to notice is the word from Jesus to hear. He calls the people to hear, and this is made very clear as he frames the parable with a simple command. From beginning, in the beginning, and to the end, we see in verse 3, listen. A command, listen. And the very end, as he gets to the very end in verse 9, he makes the same statement, hear. Let those hear. Emphasizing to the people, to the disciples, to his followers, to us today, the necessity to listen as he casts out this parable, this word, this message to the people. He points to the need for all people to hear. This message went to whom? Was it just his 12 disciples? Was it just the followers with his 12 disciples? Or was it to the multitude that were amassed on the shore while he was teaching in the boat? To the multitude, to everybody, to that mass. He points to the need for all of those people that have to hear this message. And that reality that everybody needs to understand and hear and know reminds us, as his people today, as they should have his disciples then, the urgency and the necessity of their task to communicate and cause all to hear. We need to be following the example of Christ, standing in the boats if we have to, and communicating for all to hear the gospel message. Proclaiming, listen, listen. Regardless of a response or what we think is a right response, regardless of how people respond to the message, our task is simple. Cause people to listen. How do we cause them to listen? by speaking forth the message of the gospel. As we are told in Romans 10, how can those believe if they have not heard? How can they hear if what? They've not been told. How can someone tell them if someone's not been sent? Well, guess what? We've been sent. As Jesus prays to the Father, he says to them, as you have sent me out, so I send them out into the world. He sent us out. Let us be those who proclaim this message to the world around us, regardless of who they may be. The message needs to be heard. And Jesus emphasizes that in this command to listen as he lays out this parable, the parable of the sower. who sowed seed on the ground, and we see he cast a seed on four different types of ground. One by the road, and that seed by the road is quickly snatched up by the birds, and if you've ever seen birds eat seed, that's what they do. They lay that seed out and they're quick to grab it, especially if they know you're gonna come every morning or every afternoon. Get in that habit, they'll find it, they'll be there waiting. You cast a seed on more soil, on rocky soil, soil where there's rocks in it, just a little bit of dirt, but a lot of rock. And we know a lot about that in this country, don't we? When you cast out seed in that soil, you get a quick sprout. but then it quickly dies away because there's no root, no depth, nothing to support that root and that seed. And on the third soil, amongst the weeds, and we know what weeds do to you, don't we? Try to grow that grass in a weedy plot, and it just seems impossible. Worst yet, try to put in some crop, something productive, something that you want to use to feed your family, and those weeds will overcome quickly. And finally, we see seed cast in good soil. When it's cast in good soil, we see the result. It produces 30, 60, 100 fold. In other words, there is going to be production. There's going to be fruit as it's cast on the good soil. And as this parable is laid out, speaking to the people, we find out that Jesus, as he goes away, is with his followers, they begin to ask him. Now, who asks him this question in verse 10, as soon as he was alone, his followers, along with the 12, asking him about the parables? It's not just the disciples, but it's the followers who are with Jesus and the disciples. We need to get that, understand that. all those who were following after him, all those who would have been sitting around him when his family came up to him, who he pointed to, those who follow after me, who obey, those are my family. They ask him about the parable. And they question him, why the parable? And his answer is unique. He says to them, to you have been given the mystery of the kingdom of God. He says to them, I'll tell you the parable. Why to you? Because to you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God. That mystery, by the way, the word mystery is not an unsolvable mystery in this text. The context is not something that can never be known, but it means that which is hidden. It's very much like what Daniel speaks about in his prayer to God, thanking God for being given the wisdom to know the dream and the interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar, that first dream he has. The one that he demands his wise men to tell him both the dream and the interpretation. And they say to him, oh king, no king or ruler has ever asked of that. No one knows the mind of people except for God's alone. And he calls and he asks for all these men to be wiped out and killed then. And Daniel asks for time, and he prays to God, and his friends pray to Yahweh, and there's an answer. And Daniel's given the mystery. And Daniel, in his response to that being given, he praises God and says, you, O Lord God, are the giver of knowledge, the giver of wisdom. And when he stands before King Nebuchadnezzar, he says to King Nebuchadnezzar, you're right, King, no man can know mysteries like this. No man does. But there is a God in heaven who grants mysteries to be known. as he's granted to you. When Jesus says, to you has been given the mystery, he's saying, to you, my followers, has been granted the wisdom to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. Just like to Daniel, so we can communicate it through Nebuchadnezzar. Not all, but some. But those others, he says, why do they not get the mystery? Those who are on the outside get things in parables. That hearkens us back to chapter three. Again, his family and the scribes on the outside, and those who were inside around him, listening, are the ones who grants the mystery and gives them the mystery of the kingdom. The reality that some are on the outside and some are on the inside, in essence, and are given this mystery seems to be a shock. It would seem to be a shock in light of that command to listen. But Jesus explains as he points back to a prophecy, to a word from Isaiah. And she says in verse 12, in order that to them, everything is given to those out on the outside in parables, in order that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, lest they return and be forgiven. Jesus points back to Isaiah, because Isaiah was a man called by God, as he has that great vision of the throne room of God. And the seraphim crying out, holy, holy, holy. And the call that God has to send to go forth and communicate. And he says, here I stand, I will go. And the Lord tells him then, here's your mission. Go forth and communicate my message to this people and proclaim it faithfully and never end. But oh, let me warn you, Isaiah, though they will hear, they will not understand. Though they will see, they will not truly see with their eyes that they may not repent and come to me. Oh, Isaiah, my prophet, go forth, but I'm warning you, you'll have no one respond. That's your task to preach, even though no one will respond. They need to hear. Oh, what a warning that is, that though the messages must be proclaimed, the reality is that some will not hear. They will not perceive. They will not understand. They will not listen, but they will just hear. How many times do we tell our kids, don't just hear me, listen to me? How often do we just hear God and we don't listen to Him? Though we must proclaim and communicate and cause all to hear the gospel, we must understand that not all will listen and understand and follow and comprehend That's a reminder, it's a bold, strong reminder of us, to us as people, we must rely upon the Spirit in our communicating the gospel. We all must be faithful in the Spirit. We must rely upon the Spirit for that faithfulness and that encouragement to be obedient and communicate the gospel. But when we see those responses that are far short of true faith, We must not be discouraged, but we must continue on, knowing it's the work of the Spirit that causes, that gives the mystery of the kingdom to those who listen. It's not our word, it's not my power, it's not how I communicate, not the fashion or the word I communicate, but it's the Spirit alone that changes that heart, and not me. That's my encouragement. Why do I call that encouragement? Because when I don't see the response, it's easy to be discouraged. It's easy to give up, easy to say no more. Why even toss a towel in per se? But we should not do that. We must continue proclaiming, continue living, continue using every opportunity, however little it might be, to speak to others of God's goodness in our life in the work of Christ for them. You must rely upon the work of the Spirit. And he makes that clear when he says to you, I've been given the mystery. But to those on the outside, they get the mystery. They get it only in mysteries, only in parables, that they may not truly understand, may not truly believe, even though they hear and they see. But then Jesus goes further, as we see in verse 13 in the next section. And he then begins to expound for the disciples and the followers this parable as he begins to give them the mystery. And he says to them, and he does so, interestingly enough, he does so with an admonition. Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? As a warning and a reminder, We must strive to understand the parables, the mysteries, the word of God that he's given us. And yet the reality that even though we are to be, to listen and to perceive the mysteries and understand them, we will not be given full knowledge of all the mysteries here on earth. There's much mystery that God has for us to learn. and slowly he will reveal it in his time, for all eternity will have to live out learning his mysteries. But as he says to them, the sower sows the word, as he begins to explain the parable, we need to see there's some elements in the interpretation he highlights to us that are important. These are the ones, I'm sorry, he says, first off, the sower and the seed is the word. So that's the first thing to understand when he talked about the seed in the parable. That seed is the word. And that context he points to is the preaching of the word, the casting out of that word into the world. And that word is that message that Jesus has been communicating from the beginning that I talked about at the very beginning. The time is at hand, the kingdom is now, the time is now, the kingdom is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel and all that he has to say to us about that gospel. And within this, we have some common elements of the sower, of the seed, of those hearing, for all hear the word, and we see that seed being cast. And these are all common in each one of these scenarios, in the four different pictures Jesus gives us as the sower sows the seed. What is the difference is, though, are important for us, because we have the same seed, We have the same message, the same sower, the same hearing, but we have some differences. And that is in the types of soil, the environment in the soil, and the effect upon the seed. The differences are important for us. For it's the same seed, same sower, there's all hearing, But it's different soils and different responses to the seed by the soils, based upon the soils and the environment of the soils. In particular, he starts off with the first three soil types. That first soil being by the path. And the effect of being by the path, he points out to us, is very important. When they hear those who are like the soil as by the path, immediately we find out Satan comes in like those birds and he snatches that seed away. And what happens? Nothing. The seed never even takes root. The seed never even enters the ground. It's like casting seed on hard ground. on cement. How hard is it to break up soil? I believe it was Daniel was talking about it last week, man. It's all baked in Texas soil as hard as a rock. You have to break it up because otherwise it just lies dead. The next ground, he points to the rocky soil. Those are like those who hear the word. They immediately pop up this great joy and immediately in hearing the word. But there's a problem. Like the soil with rocks in it, there is no root. There is no depth. And therefore, when persecution comes, trials come up because of the word. They quickly fall away. That root is burned up because it's so shallow. It's intense sun. And those in that land where Jesus lived in Palestine, they understood what it meant to have a baking sun in the summertime. Like here, the sun bakes hard. And it quickly kills the shallow root. And that third soil, that thorny ground soil, he says, that other soil is one upon whom the seed is thrown in the thorny ground. And these are ones who have heard the word, and they respond if there's a problem. The worries of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, the desires for other things enter in and it chokes the word and it becomes unfruitful. Those things, those other concerns that they have, those other temptations, those other masters that they had begin calling him back. These are people who are divided in their attention. We're trying to serve two masters. The problem with that is you can't serve two masters, as we're told. You'll love the one and hate the other, or you'll hate the one and love the other. You can't do that. And therefore those who allow the worries and the deceitfulnesses and the desires of other things to overcome them, they quickly, quickly abandon that word and there's no more fruit in their lives, in their life. The idea is that they're not focused on the kingdom. Again, they're divided in their loyalty and therefore no fruit. What a sad picture it would be if we stopped there. Golly, why are we called to proclaim, to cause people to hear? If we know people aren't going to hear, the seed is going to be snatched up. It is going to be short-lived, joyful, but die quickly or easily choked out by other concerns. But Jesus also says there is hope as he gives that last soil, the fourth soil. And those are the ones in whom seed was sown in the good soil. They hear the word, they accept it, and they bear fruit 30, 60, and a hundredfold. What is different about this good soil compared to the others? They heard and they accepted. That's the key to the varied responses. It's not just hearing, it's accepting what you heard, what you've been listening to, and taking that in. By accepting that word, we see there's a production of fruit as that ground takes in that seed. But then you have to ask, what does that very response tell us? Why is there a varied response? What else, if you look at it deeper in the soils, what made that fourth soil so different? It's not just the response that's different, but what made that fourth soil so different? That fourth soil is that soil that Daniel spoke about last week, that he had to prep and prepare his ground to take that sod. That fourth soil, that was soil that was good soil. What is good soil? It's not just soil that is the right mixture that's been prepared properly, that's been turned up. has been prepared by the farmer, has been made ready, has been given all the attention needed so that at the right moment, in the right season, when that seed is cast, that soil will take and will accept the word, will accept that seed. And when that seed is accepted in the soil, it will produce fruit. The disciples were being told very clearly, why the very response? Because it's only in a heart that has been prepared. Prepared by whom? Prepared by what? Not by the man, but by the sower, the Word of God, by Christ himself, by the Spirit. You must understand, we strive, we work, we proclaim the word, but it's not our doing that prepares the heart. The spirit, the spirit that moves in the heart and prepares the heart, that turns it up, that tills it. So at just the right moment is prepared, being given all the nutrients, now living soil, not dead and hard and ready finally to accept the word at that right moment. And that's a great joy in those moments. We know we have that hope that as we cast out the word, though we can't see the heart, though we can't see the soil and how good it is, we know our God does. And we know that those whom he has prepared will receive, will accept the word. And we know that because why? How do we know that foresoil was a good soil? How do we know that was a good soil? Because it produced fruit 30, 60, and 100-fold. And it doesn't matter, by the way, how much is being produced, what the magnitude of production is. What matters is there's production. There is fruit. Those who have heard and have accepted the word will evidence it. by the fruit in their life, by what they are producing. He tells his disciples, did you have been given the mystery? Why? I'm working on your soil. I'm working on your heart. I'm changing you. We know that those who have been given the mystery are those that the Spirit's been working on, preparing the heart, causing them to be ready to accept that word. We know that when we see that fruit, when we when we see someone cry out in weeping and anguish, what must I do to be saved? As they hear the word, we know it's not because of all I've done, but because the Spirit's been working in them and made them ready for just that one moment that you cast a seed out. You just get the opportunity to enjoy seeing that fruit first come forth. and praise God. He tells his disciples why there are a variety of responses. Why are there scribes saying I'm working the devil's work? Why do I have my family saying I'm crazy? Why are there people rejecting me and walking away? Why are you here listening? Because you have the heart that's been worked on. It's not, it does not go to the greatest, the wisest, the strongest, the most powerful, but it goes to those whom the Lord is working on this message and the right to bear fruit. We must remember our life. If we are God's child, we must always be faithful. Our life needs to reflect that we are God's child as we produce that fruit. This message is truly a warning message. It calls us as people of God, if you are a child of God, to look at your life. Will the world around see fruit being produced? Will they see the 30 or the 60 or the hundredfold? Doesn't matter how much, will they see your life that reflects Christ? Or do they begin to see the withering away, the dying, or the continuing hard as a path that your life never accepted? We must be a people who always proclaim God's truth. We must understand the great privilege it is to hear that truth and to understand it. And we must always be faithful to be producing, to be living in the work of the Spirit, to be living out the fruits of the Spirit so that people will see Christ in us and Christ alone more each day. And he will be glorified and not us. Jesus started with this parable showing just why not everybody was responding positively to him. To help his disciples, to help us understand as we proclaim that truth following Jesus, casting out that seed, causing all to hear. And not all will actually listen, but we still have a task to do. And our life needs to reflect that as we cast the fruit, as we cast the word, and as we live out that word in us daily. I call us as God's people, you're God's child today. Be faithful, be faithful in the gospel communication, and be faithful in your life for God's glory. I call those who have yet to see Christ, and you know, I urge you to see, to hear, and to listen. To listen to Christ. He is the hope. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the only life. Only through Him do we have life. Only because of Him Can we even think of doing anything that's right in the eyes of God? For His glory, may we give glory to Him and Him alone. Amen. Lord, we thank you for your love and your mercies to us, for calling us and giving us the right, those who are your children, to see and to hear the mystery of the kingdom, reminding us all the more it's not by our own strength, but by yours alone. Help us be faithful. to forever communicate, in every moment we can, to cast the seed of your message, of your mystery out, trusting you to make clear to the good soul, to your people, the truth of this message, the mystery of the kingdom, that they may be faithful and produce for your glory and yours alone. Let us be faithful and not discouraged when we see the opposite response, and many who don't listen. But let us be all the more encouraged to go forth, that you may be glorified in our obedience to you, in our love to you, for your glory and yours alone. Amen.