The Message of Christ

Sermon Transcript

Good morning Brave Church. We help me welcome all of our campuses who are worshiping with us today. So great to worship with all of you.

A couple reminders before we get started preaching the Word this morning. Christmas Eve services, December 24th. This Tuesday, 2:00 and 4:00. It is a fantastic time to invite people to church. They look for opportunities.

They don't want to walk in by themselves. Feel free to ask. You'll be amazed at how many people come. It will be packed in here. We do have overflow seating.

If you see people that you don't know that have never been here before, give them your seat. It's okay. Don't fight for your seat. Say you can't sit here. We sit here every Sunday.

Get out. Don't do that. Welcome people. Let them feel good. It's going to be a great time.

We'll be sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ and trusting God to save many that day. Also want you to put this in your mind. Starting in the new year, January 5th, we started our 21 days of prayer and fasting. We as a church begin our year doing that. And the purpose of that is that you'd fall more in love with Jesus.

A couple of comments to make. We will be praying every day for that 21 days. On Monday through Friday we meet here from 6:30 to 7:30 in the morning. On Saturdays we'll meet from 8:00 to 9:00. For those 21 days.

There is nothing in the Bible that mandates that you fast. You do not have to fast. We are asking you to consider participating as the Lord would lead you. Nobody's going to ask you what you're going to do. If you choose not to fast, totally fine.

It's an individual thing. And fasting is simply setting aside food for the purpose of seeking the Lord and growing more strong spiritually. Couple words to you. If you've never fasted before, start small. Pick one meal out of the 21 days.

Don't think well, if we're doing 21 days, I think I'll just not eat for 21 days. You won't make it number one. Number two, it's not about starving yourself. It's not about what you're doing. It is for the mature believer to begin to set aside food for the purpose of seeking the Lord.

If you have a medical condition, seek your doctor. Maybe you can set aside something else for the purpose of seeking the Lord. But again, it's up to you how you want to participate. Our goal is that we as 20 for 21 days would seek the face of the Lord more intensely and fall more in love with Jesus. As we begin our calendar year, I would love you to be a part of that.

I think if I'm not mistaken, by next Sunday our prayer journals will be here. I wrote a 21 day prayer journal that you can have and use as a tool as we spend that 21 days together as a church family. And with that, let's continue our worship as we go before the Lord and get ready to hear his word among us. Our Father in Heaven, we give you all the praise and glory for who you are. And we thank you specifically this day for the gift of your Son, Jesus Christ, whom you sent to this earth, who became incarnate flesh, who fulfilled the law, who died on a cross in our place, who paid for all the sin of the world, who rose from the dead.

We give him all of our allegiance and praise. We thank you for your Holy Spirit who indwells every single one of us who believe. We ask that you would move mightily in this service today so we could hear your word. We thank you, Holy Spirit, that you still convict of sin, righteousness and judgment. We ask you to do that today for the sake of your great name.

And so now we come and we gather before you and we're excited because we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you are speaking. So our prayer this morning is speak, Lord, for we are ready to hear. And so now all those who have gathered who desire to hear Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you and who will by faith, put into practice what he shows you. Will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the Word? Amen.

Amen. This morning I want to talk to you about the message of Christ. I want to talk to you about the message of Christ. We've been in this series called the Only God. And we've been talking about our Trinitarian God.

And we've been spelling out truths from God's Word about who Jesus Christ is. And we started this series by talking about the deep that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We talked about who he was, that he's always existed, that the second Person of the Trinity has always existed. There's never been a time where he did not exist. He's God.

And nearly 2,000 years ago he became flesh and made his dwelling among us. And we spent week two talking about His Incarnation and how in humility and in obedience to his Father, he put on flesh not just for 33 years while he was on the earth, but for all eternity, so that he could do what we couldn't do. Number one, he wanted to identify with us. But number two, he wanted to fulfill the law so that when he died on the cross, he could pay for all of our sin. He rose from the dead, validating that he was indeed God's one and only Son.

He rose from the dead, he ascended into heaven, and he's coming back as the God man. He is both God and man. He is truly God, truly man. When you see Jesus, you see deity and you see humanity all wrapped up together. That's who he is.

And then last week we talked about the ministry of Jesus and we talked about the fact there's no possible way in one sermon to cover it all. As a matter of fact, I was thinking this week, when I taught the Book of Matthew to our congregation, I. I spent three years and 90 sermons to get it all done. And still we hadn't exhausted the ministry of Jesus. To do that, we would need to start in Genesis 1:1, go all the way through the end of Revelation 22:21, and get a full picture how all the prophetic utterances in the Old Testament came to be the exact way that the New Testament describes Jesus Christ being.

But we talked about who he was and how he had authority and what he did and when he encountered different people and how he brought grace and truth to every single encounter. But today I want to talk about the message of Jesus. What was it he was trying to proclaim? Why did he come? And what is he wanting to do in your heart?

And it's important that you know the message. But it's also important you know that, that when you hear the message, there's going to be a response to the message. You can't remain passive to the message of Jesus Christ. It's important for you to know. Who would say, I'm a believer, I already know the message.

It's important for you to know because you're called to share the message. What goes off inside a person when you share the message of Jesus Christ? How are people going to respond? And whether it's me here preaching today, you sharing the gospel with a friend, neighbor or relative. All of these truths continue to apply to today, which will be helpful for you if you're a Christian in your growth.

And it will also be helpful to you, as you hear this, to examine yourself and ask yourself, am I Really a believer today. And so to do that, we're going to look at a very familiar story in God's word found in Mark, chapter four. Mark, chapter four. We're going to be in verses one through 20, but I'm going to set up the first 12 verses for us, and then we'll get into the responses to the message of Jesus as a result of this parable that. That Jesus Christ told.

It's an important parable. You're gonna see that it may be the most important of all the parables that he's told. And it's important that we understand it as a church and that you individually understand this, because this is how you're responding to the message of Jesus in some way. Notice what he says. He says he began to teach again by the sea, and such a very large crowd gathered to him that he got into a boat in the sea and sat down.

And the whole crowd was by the sea, on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables. And he was saying to them in his teaching, listen to this. Behold, the sower went out to sow. And as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up.

Other seed 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. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. Other seeds fell into the good soil.

And as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced 30, 60, and a hundredfold. And he was saying, he who has ears, let him hear. 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 so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive.

And while hearing, they may hear and not understand. Otherwise they might turn and be forgiven. And sometimes that's called the parable of the sower. I think it should be called the parable of the soils. Because really the sower is doing the exact same thing every single time he's sowing seed.

But there's different responses to the seed. In the first century, for farming, they didn't have combines. They didn't plow different rows. They didn't have seeds that were placed in the ground the way that they would plant seeds is they would walk out into the field, they. They would have a satchel or a bag with seed in it, and they would scatter the seed.

And he tells this story that some seed fell upon the hard ground. The seed couldn't get into the ground, and when it did, the birds came and ate it up. Then he told about the different kind of seed that fell among places where the soil was somewhat shallow because there was a rock bed underneath. So it sprung up quickly. But when the sun came out, because it had no root, it withered away and died.

Third kind of soil fell among the weeds. It grew up, but the weeds choked it out and made it unfruitful. And then there was a fourth kind of soil. And when the seed got into that good soil, it produced a harvest of 30, 60, and even a hundredfold. And he was telling them while he's telling the story, he who has ears, let him hear.

That's Jesus Christ's way of saying, if you have spiritual ears, pay attention to this. It's really important. And that's the story. That's all he told. And when he got alone with his disciples, they're like, hey, Jesus, why is it that when we're with you, you tell us specifically about the kingdom of God and righteousness and all these things, but when we're with other people, you talk in parables.

And he tells them. He quotes Isaiah. He says, here's why I speak in parables. I'm telling parables so that those who have spiritually discerning ears will press in to hear it. And those who want to hear it can hear a deeper richness of what I'm trying to say.

And I'm also talking in parables so that those who say, I don't get it will just never get it. Friends, Jesus didn't talk in parables because he was telling stories so that everybody would understand. I've heard a lot of people say this in church. Jesus always spoke in parables because people love stories. Yes, people love stories, but the purpose of the story is the reason that you tell it.

The word parable literally means one alongside. And there's several parables in our Bible where Jesus tells a story, a made up story to tell one nugget of spiritual truth. And here's what you know about every single parable. They're all shocking. Like they're all beyond belief.

Like, that's not how I expected this to go. You remember when Jesus told the story of the publican and the sinner that went up to Pray. One was righteous, one was unrighteous. And the Pharisee began. He said, hey, Lord, I just want to thank you that I'm not like all other men.

I tithe, I give. I'm pretty awesome. I'm pretty good, and it's so nice to come to you. I know how to pray, I know what to do, and I do all the right things. And then there was a sinner that stood at a distance, and all he did was beat his chest, say, lord, have mercy on me, a sinner.

And the shock of the story is Jesus said that one. The sinner went home justified. And if we would have been there, it would be like, what, you mean the religious good person that knows how to pray? That's not what you're looking for. You're looking for the one that's calling out for mercy and desperation.

Yeah, that's what it is. Or remember the story about the prodigal sons and the younger son that ran away and squandered all of his father's wealth and made his dad undignified. And sure enough, he ends up slopping pigs. And after he finds himself in the pig pen, comes home to be with his dad. And what would you expect?

You'd expect the dad to go running after him and punish him and yell at him and tell him what he did wrong. And that's what we see. We see the dad looking for him in the distance and starts sprinting after him, which is an undignified thing. But when he comes to the Son, what does he do? He throws his arms around him.

He hugs and kisses him. He says, welcome home. Not only that, bring the fatted calf. Let's celebrate. Put a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet, bring the best robe.

This son of mine was dead. Now he's alive. He was lost. Now he's found. Let's celebrate.

Like, what in the world? Your son, you know, made you look bad, and yet you're celebrating him. I mean, that's why parables are shocking. Or the story of the Good Samaritan. Jews hated Samaritans.

There's no such thing as a Good Samaritan. And so when Jesus tells this story, he tells the story about a man that was on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho and he got beat up by robbers. And when the priest sees him, he goes all the way around him because the priest doesn't want to become ceremonially unclean. When the Levite, who was one of the worship leaders, saw him, he came up to him. But when he doesn't recognize him.

He too goes around him. Because, like, I guess God knows, this guy I need to take care of. But when the Samaritan came, what does he do? Well, their Samaritans aren't any good. They're not going to do anything.

Samaritan goes up, bandages his wounds, puts him on his donkey, takes him to the inn, pays for him, tells the guy, if there's ever anything else that he needs, let me know. I'll come back and pay for him. Shocking story. And then he asked who did. Who was the one being neighborly.

And the guy can't even say the word Samaritan. He goes, the one who took care of him. I mean, parables are shocking. This parable is shocking. Jesus is telling about seed that's going out.

And the seed we're going to find out is the word of God, which goes out. And how people respond to the message is going to be very, very different. And I'm gonna make five points about the message of Jesus today. And the first point is this as we get started, that the message of Christ is misunderstood by the unregenerate heart. The message of Christ is misunderstood by the unregenerate heart.

Now, you may ask, how is it that we can tell the story of Jesus and people just don't get it? Here's the story we've been telling. I'll sum it up. We're talking about Jesus Christ, God's eternal son, the second person of the Trinity, who 2,000 years ago put on flesh and came to save the world from their sins. He was born in Bethlehem in a manger, but that one, the God man, grew up in wisdom, knowledge and stature, fulfilled the law, demonstrated he was the Messiah and the Christ, and then willingly went to the cross as he said he was going to do.

He was beaten, he was whipped, he was stripped, he was laid on a cross. He got nails driven into his hands and his feet, and he died in your place for all your sin. Why did he need to do that? Because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. You're a sinner, and the wages of sin is death.

You're going to die. And if you die and your sin is apart from Christ, you will be dragged to an eternal hell. God so loved the world that he sent Jesus so you wouldn't have to. Jesus Christ died in your place for all your sins, rose from the dead so that through repentance and faith, meaning, through turning from your sin to Christ, you can receive the full measure of Christ's forgiveness and the full measure of Christ's life in your life. That's the message.

It's not about getting religion, it's not about joining a church. It's not about giving your money. It's not about trying to be better a person. It's about you're dead and you need to be made alive. And Jesus Christ is the only one that can do that.

And even if you think about just the Gospel of John, I mean, the message is everywhere. John 1:1 says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. It means Jesus has always been here with his Father from all eternity. There's never a time he didn't exist and the Word became flesh and he made his dwelling among us. John 1:14 that the second person of the Trinity, the God man, came into this world on your behalf to identify with you.

If he ever stopped being God, it means that his death on the cross had no significance for you. And if he ever stopped being man, it means that we as human beings have no relationship to God. John 3:16 why did he come? For God so loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 10:10 the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy.

I've come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. Jesus said amidst the plurality of religions and people's ideas, he said in John 14:6, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. He said in John 17:3 in his high priestly prayer, now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. And even when he was hanging on the cross, praying, he said, what it is is finished.

All throughout the Scriptures we see the exact same story, that mankind is unregenerate. Mankind can't get to God. There's nothing that we can do to get there. So God sent His Son, Jesus, and through Jesus Christ, the God man. That's the only way to have a relationship with the Father.

Period. End of story. So how come not everybody gets that? It's really interesting because 1 Corinthians tells us why in 1st Corinthians, chapter 1 and verse 18 tells us about the response that you're going to get when you preach the Gospel to those who are unregenerate. Sometimes says that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those of us who are being saved.

It has become the power of God, and Here's why that is. First Corinthians 2:14. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. Talk to someone that's unregenerate, that doesn't want anything to do with God, and they will reject Jesus Christ outright. They'll say, that's foolish.

You can't really believe that Jesus Christ is the only way. Have you noticed there's over 8 billion people in the world? You're going to tell me right now that Jesus Christ is the only way, the truth and life for all of them? Yes, that's what I'm telling you. That's exactly.

And the unregenerate heart can't get their mind around that. So they always construct their view of their God in their own way. Some people do it through what's called atheism, where they say, there is no God, therefore I don't need to respond to God, therefore I can live my life however I want. Some atheists are good people, some atheists aren't good people. It doesn't really matter.

Atheists are wicked in their heart. They're foolish in their heart. Not that they're not smart, but they're foolish in that they're wicked towards the things of God they want nothing to do with the Word. Some would say, no, I'm not an atheist. I'm more an agnostic.

I know there's a God, we just can't know who he is. And so I've developed principles that help me live right with God. God. And I've developed these principles based on morality. And by morality, what I'm saying is what I consider moral.

I'll make God in my own way to do what I want to do, and then I'll compare myself to how I believe God would want me to be. And then there's others who just flat out reject Jesus. And some do it nicely and some do it in hostility. I've met people that do it nicely where I've shared the gospel with somebody and they're like, oh, that is so sweet. You and your wife are in the ministry.

That's so kind. The world needs people like you. No, you need to repent and trust Jesus is what needs to happen here. Nice. They just don't want anything to do with it.

They're not mean people. They just. They don't want to hear about Jesus being The only way. And then some people are hostile. I've done street preaching before.

I've been told off with every kind of four letter word you can possibly imagine, hostility towards it. And if you watch people online or on social media, there's a hostility, either a passive one or I'm not that interested, or a hostile one that you've got to be kidding me, that you think Jesus is the only way. Why? Because the unregenerate heart has to make up who their God is in their own image. And even the unregenerate, some of the unregenerate, call themselves Christians.

I'm a Christian and I totally believe this. I'm a Christian and I believe that. And when they say I believe it, they, they go thoroughly against the word and everything that they say. But they're like, but I'm a Christian, I'm a Christian. I think homosexuality is okay.

I'm a Christian. I don't think adultery is wrong. I'm a Christian. I don't think you need to forgive that person if they're mean to you. Well, that's not a Christian.

The unregenerate heart will always make up God in their own image. And you need to see that as a blanket to what Jesus is saying. Because we're going to talk about four different kinds of responses that we can have to him this morning. Because it's really interesting in verse 13, notice what he says. And he said to them, do you not understand this parable?

How will you understand all the parables? Jesus said, if you don't get this one, you won't get them all. In other words, this may be the most important parable Jesus has ever told. Like, you get this. All the other parables make sense.

You don't get this, none of the other parables will make sense. Like, you better get this one. And he's asking his disciples, you don't understand it, do you? You don't get what I'm trying to say, do you? So let me explain in private to you what I was trying to explain.

And you need to fully understand this. And as you're listening today, I'm asking you, I'm pleading with you, pay attention to every type of soil that Jesus talks about. Because it's the message of Christ is so misunderstood by the unregenerate. Let me give you four responses that you're going to have when you hear the gospel of Jesus Christ or the message of Christ. And the first is this.

The message of Christ will be rejected by the hardened heart. The message of Christ will be rejected by the hardened heart. The. The hardened heart is one of the unregenerate hearts that he talks about. Notice what he said.

He said in verse four. He said, and he was sowing. Some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. And then he explains what that means in verses 14, 15 and 14 and 15. He said, the sower sows the Word, so we know the seed is the Word.

The seed is the Logos. The Logos is the Word of God. We talked about in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God. And the Word. Word was with God, and the Word was God.

It's the Logos. It's the. It's whatever the Logos is. It's the one that created all things. It's the one that holds all things together, the one who has creative power, all authority.

That's the Logos. And so that's. That's the Word of God. And as this Word goes forth, here's one response. The ones that got eaten by the birds, these are the ones 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. You need to understand every time that Christ is being exalted. Christ is being talked about, the Word is being preached. You're sharing the gospel with a friend. Every time that's being talked about, there is a danger.

Because here's what the enemy wants to do. He wants to rob it from your heart so it doesn't take root in your heart. So he's gonna steal it before you even hear it. That's why some of you are falling asleep right now. That's a hardened heart, right?

I'm just here because my parents made me come. I'm just here because my wife made me come. My. My. My husband dragged me.

You're. You're. How long's this going to be? How much long? Two hours.

Pay attention.

I was joking. But here's what he's saying. It's like I'm numb to it. I mean, I grew up in a church where the pastor only preached about 15 minutes. And somebody had the great idea they would douse the lights before he would speak.

I could fall asleep easily in those 15 minutes, even if I wasn't tired. Why? Because the enemy is constantly working to take the Word of God away from you. Because he knows if that ever gets implanted in your life, you will never, ever be the same. So you need to understand, the enemy is at work every time that the Word of God's being proclaimed.

Every time you're sharing the faith with another, the enemy is at work, like trying to rob it and take it away. Because he knows he wants nothing about you to be connected to the Word. And here's the truth, here's what he also knows, is that unbelief is really the only unforgivable sin. And by unbelief, I'm talking about you dying your sins. Not believing that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Not believing he died for you and rose from the dead, not having turned your life over to him. You die in that condition, you will go to an eternal hell. And he knows that. So he doesn't want you to hear anything about God. And so some of you, even while you're listening, you're getting hostile, you're getting mad, like, this is the last time I'm coming back to this church.

I don't like this message. I don't like this guy, all that kind of stuff. That's a hardened heart. A hardened heart's like, don't make me listen to this Jesus stuff. Why are you so hostile about this Jesus stuff?

Here's why. Because the devil is getting you to hate the word of God because he doesn't want you anywhere near it. That's why. That's the hardened heart. The hardened heart doesn't want the things of God.

The hardened heart doesn't hear the things of God. The hardened heart doesn't know the things of God. Because you forget a couple things that the Word of God teaches. In Ephesians 2 and verse 1, it says that you are dead in your trespasses and sins. Your biggest problem is not that you're a bad person or a good person.

It's not that you need to work harder in life or you got to work on something. Your biggest problem in your life is that you're born spiritually dead and there's nothing you can do about it. And there is no one good, no, not one. And the wages of sin is death. And if you die in the condition that you're in, you will spend a Christless eternity, which will be awful.

Another truth that you don't hear is Psalm 7, verse 11, that God is angry with the wicked every day. Now you might say, thank goodness I'm not wicked. Well, according to the Bible, you're born wicked and you have a track record of doing wicked things. By wicked, I don't mean awful, heinous crimes. By wicked I mean you have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and you're not living his ways.

And the Bible calls that wicked. And the Lord's angry every single day with the wicked. If you're sinning, he hates it. Keep this in mind. When Jesus died for sins on the cross, he doesn't send sins to hell.

Who does he send to hell? Sinners. Like sinners go to hell, not your sin. It's not like when you die, God separates you from your sin, sends your sin to hell and takes you to heaven. You sinners that own what they did go to hell.

Right? So he died for sinners, and he's angry with sinners every single day. That's what the Bible says. Right? And here's the problem that you have with it.

2nd Corinthians 4:4 highlights this. I didn't know that. Here's why you didn't know that not only are you spiritually dead, but you're mentally blind. In whose case? 2 Corinthians 4:4.

The God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. So not only are you dead, not only you can't hear God, can't see God, but the enemy is working hard to keep your mind spiritually blind to the things of God so that you respond hostilely to him. So that when you hear a preacher say, God will send sinners to hell, God sends unrepentant sinners to hell. Instead of saying, what must I do? You say, I don't like that teaching.

I'm out of here. And I got good news for you. You can get out of here, but the Holy Spirit will still chase you down with that truth for the rest of your life. Do you know that? I mean, when I tell you that God loves you.

For the believer, there is a special kind of relational fatherly family love that you receive when you turn from your sin to Christ. He loves you with an unconditional love. There is nothing, not one thing you can do to make him love you any bit less. And there's nothing you can do to make him love you anymore. I mean, he loves, loves, loves you unconditionally.

It's a relational, powerful love. But Pastor Jeff, at the end of every service, you say you are loved. And you just said that those who are unregenerate, God will send to hell. Here's how he loves you. He created you in his image, so he has a love for you.

And here's how much he loves you. He loves you with A pursuing love. Jesus Christ loves you so much he left heaven, became the God man, so that he could die on the cross in your place for all your sins, that even if you don't respond to him, he still loves you. God demonstrated his own love for us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. I heard a story a long time ago about a woman who had filled up in a gas station.

She went in to pay her bill, came out of the gas station, started pulling out of the gas station, got onto the highway. As she got onto the highway, she saw this police car just ripping behind her, turn the lights on, sirens flashing, chasing her down. And she's thinking, I didn't do anything wrong. Like, this is crazy. Kept chasing her down, kept chasing her down, ran into.

Finally she pulled over, got into a Walmart. She's like, this is weird that he's pulling me over. I didn't do anything wrong. And she got out of her car, kind of like to scream at the police officer, like, what did I do? And when she did, the door of her back, the back door of her car opened and this guy ran out and the police chased him down and handcuffed him.

He said, ma'am, I watched him get in your car when you went outside, and I was chasing you down so that he wouldn't hurt you. That's a pursuing love. That's the kind of love God has for the unrepentant. He doesn't hate you. He created you.

But he's pursuing you. Because if you die in your trespasses and sins, you will be apart from him for all eternity. And he cares about you so much, he's coming after you. Don't fight it. Amen.

And the hardened heart rejects Christ. He just rejects him all the time. But there's another soil too, that he talks about, the soil that fell upon the rocks. You read it in verse 5. Other seed fell upon 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 because it had no root and it withered away. And Jesus tells us what that looks like in verses 16 and 17. He said in a similar way. So in a similar way means in the same way as the hardened heart is the rocky heart. Like it's the same thing?

It's just a different expression of the same thing in a similar way. These are the ones on whom the seed was sown, on the rocky places, 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. So the message of Christ gives you this response.

It's temporary in the shallow heart. The message of Christ is temporary in the shallow heart. So these are people that would perhaps even hear the gospel, perhaps even pray a prayer, perhaps even stand to their feet, perhaps even give a profession of faith, perhaps even say, I believe in Jesus, perhaps even say, he's my Lord, perhaps say all those things until. Until their seeming faith costs them something. Until they realize, well, wait a second.

You mean God asked me to be that kind of husband? You mean God asked me to be that kind of wife? You mean God asked me to raise those kind of kids. You mean God asked me to do this with my money? You mean, man, people are making fun of me, like, I didn't sign up for that.

What I signed up for was the benefits of what Christ could give. But I never wanted Christ. That's the shallow soil. That's the shallow heart. These are people that would say, I want to go to heaven.

What do I got to do to get there? It's the rich young ruler. It's, what do I. What do I got to do? Just tell me what I got to pray.

Tell me what I got to do. Just tell me. Here's what I want to know. What's the bare minimum I can do and still get all the benefit from you without ever having spent any time with you? That's the shallow soil.

Now, as a pastor and as somebody's walked with the Lord for 35 years, I've watched this hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times. Sometimes people spring up, they have an experience. They cry their eyes out. They love the worship. They like the presence of God.

They like the feeling. They announce that they're a Christian. Everybody cheers. It's great. It's awesome.

It's good. But they never had a relationship with Christ. They really didn't want Christ. They wanted the benefit of what they were feeling to continue. And when persecution comes, they're like, I'm out of here.

I don't want anything. I'm not talking about they changed churches. I'm talking about, I'm done with Christ. I'm falling away. Some people, this happens a couple months after they seemingly profess their faith.

Some people, it's over a period of time or even years where, like, what in the world? I thought they were my. They were my cadre. They served with Me at church, they were like, now they're like, not even there anymore. Like, what happened to them?

They were never a believer in the first place. That's pretty scary, isn't it? I mean, Jesus said the. Or the Bible tells us this. Second Timothy 3:12.

Anyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. You trust Christ, you're going to have trials. Jesus said, in this world, you will have tribulation. So if you falsely believe that, well, I'm going to trust Christ, I won't have any problems anymore. You're going to have more, but the problems you're going to have are because of Him.

And it's going to be challenging. And here's what we know as believers. When trials and challenges come, as a believer, even though we're uncomfortable with them, even though we wouldn't have authored them, even though we wouldn't have wanted them, we know as a Christian, when we press into them and press through them, our faith in Christ actually grows and gets stronger. And it's what God uses as a curriculum to develop us. That's a great place for an amen.

Because sometimes we trust Christ and think everything's going to be great. And I got married. It was going to be great. And I got kids, and it was going to be great. And then what happened?

My husband left. What happened? My wife was sleeping around. What happened? I thought I had this job.

What happened? If you're Christian and those things happen, you're going to press into Jesus even more. And here's what you find in God's word. He tells you there's a blessing in it, even though it's uncomfortable at the time. Romans, chapter 5, verses 3 to 5 and says, and not only this, but we also exalt or rejoice in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance and perseverance, proven character and character, hope.

And hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who was given to us. So what happens? We go through a rough time. We're rejoicing. Not about the situation, but we're rejoicing that we belong to Christ because we know that in that situation, he's developing our character, he's developing our perseverance.

We're going to have more hope. In what? In Christ. And anybody that's been through a trial, that pursues the Lord in the middle of the trial comes out the other side and says, I do love the Lord more. But I hated going through that.

And I wish I'd never have to go through it again. But I've lived long enough now to know there's another one coming. Right? That's what he does. But the shallow soil, Anytime something creeps up like, I'm done with this, I'm out.

I didn't sign up for this. I'm not one of those Jesus weird people. And when they go out from you and they don't come back, that was a sign they never belonged to Christ in the first place. You say, how do you know that? Because the Bible teaches that.

First John, chapter two, verse 19, says, they went out from us, but they were not really of us. For if they had been with us, they would have remained with us, but they went out so that it would be shown that they are really not of us. Friends, it happens all the time. You say, Pastor Jeff, then why do you have people stand at Christmas and Easter and respond for the ones who are genuinely converted so they can remember that moment? But do I believe that every single person that stands to their feet was converted?

Not necessarily. I don't know if it was a magic formula that if you stood to your feet, you get saved. I'd make everybody stand for the whole message. When I'm preaching like, there's no magic formula here, folks. It's a change of heart.

And there's a hardened heart that wants nothing to do with Jesus. Nice people in that category, hostile people in that category. Then there's a shallow heart of people that say, hey, I just want the benefits of Jesus, but just don't take me through the Ruth. I'm not looking to pursue Jesus. I don't want Jesus in my life.

I just wanted the benefits. And if things are going to get tough for me being a Jesus follower, I don't want to follow him anymore. That's the shallow heart. You'll see that it's disappointing every time that you do. And then there's a third heart.

And you remember the third heart was those that fell among the the weeds or the thorns. Notice verse 7. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. And Jesus begins to spell out this in verses 18 and 19. Notice what he says.

And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns. These are the ones who have heard the Word. But the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things enter in and choke the Word and it becomes unfruitful. So the message of Jesus here, the message of Christ here is choked by the worldly heart. There's a worldly heart, and the worldly heart chokes.

What happens now? Of all of the pictures in this parable, this is probably the most shocking of all of them. And here's why. Because he says that there's seed that goes forth and it's actually springing up and it actually looks like it's doing well. But I want you to pay attention, because in both the verses up top in verse seven, where it says it yielded no crop, and down here where it says it becomes unfruitful, you need to know this about the third soil, too.

There's nothing to show for it. It's the same as the first two. Because sometimes we read this and we'll say, like, yeah, my heart's a little hard today. I need to change it. Or, you know what?

It's a little rocky in my life and I need to do this. And you know what? I got a little weeds and I got to tend. That's not what this parable is addressing. This parable is addressing what the word of God does when it falls on different types of hearts, when it falls on a hardened heart, when it falls on a shallow heart, and when it falls upon this heart, and this heart may be the most dangerous of all.

This is the worldly heart, and it produces nothing either. Now, it looks like it is because it's growing among the thorns and it's growing among the weeds. But notice this. It's sown among the thorns. They've heard the word, but notice those three things.

I'm going to read them to you twice. The worries of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things. I'm going to say it again because I want you to hear it. The worries of this world. I'm so concerned about what's going to happen.

I don't know what's going to happen. I'm worried, worried, worried, worried, worried, worried, worried. Okay, that's one. The deceitfulness of wealth. I got to have more.

I got to have more money. I don't have enough resources. I got to have more. I got to focus on that and the desire for other things. Meaning your focus and attention is on someone or something other than Jesus.

Mainly those three things. That's bad soil. Now, you know what I call that bad soil? The American dream. That's why that one's dangerous.

Because isn't that what we're taught to do? Hey, think about your life and where you're gonna go. Because if you don't take care of you, nobody else is gonna take care of you. If it's gonna be, it's up to me. I gotta set goals and I gotta get where I'm gonna go.

And I'm worried that it's not gonna work out because not everybody in this world seems to be caring about my stuff as much as I do. And they don't. And so I'm focusing on self. And here's what you're doing when you're worrying. You're saying, I want to be in control because God doesn't know what he's doing.

In other words, if you're worrying about something that you can do something about, like, I can't seem to be. No money seems to be coming in. Well, then get a job. But yeah, but I didn't want that job. Cause that job's beneath me and.

No, no, just get a job. Like, if you can do something, then do something. But if it's beyond your reach, like, my mom's got cancer, my husband's a stranger, you can't do anything, then don't worry about that either. Just give it to the Lord. Like, if you spend all of your day and I'm not talking about Christians.

Listen, listen, listen, listen. Some of you now worried that you're not even a Christian. Listen, I'm not saying that we can't fall into bouts of anxiety from time to time. I'm not saying that we don't need to repent of some things from time. I'm talking if your whole life is consumed with what's going to happen and you're worried, worried, worried, worried, worried.

It means this. I don't trust the Lord. That's all you're saying? I don't trust Jesus or I don't like the way he's unfolding things before me. That's what worry is.

And then what's the deceitfulness of wealth? We took a look at two wealthy men last week. One was a rich young ruler and one was Zacchaeus. Both were extremely wealthy men. So it wasn't how much wealth they had, it was how much did wealth have them for the rich.

Young ruler, when Jesus said, go sell everything you have and give to the poor and then come follow me, your treasure will be great in heaven. He walked away sad. Why? Because his heart was on the things of the world. If I give away my money, I'm not going to have my influence.

If I give away my money, I'm not going to have my house. If I give away my money, I'm not going to have the comforts I need. I'm like, I'm about money first and I'll add you to it, Jesus, but you can't be my sinner. Whereas the Kia's Lord here and now, I give away half my possessions to the poor. And if I've wronged anybody, I'll pay them back four times as much.

I don't want money, I want you. That's the deceitfulness of riches. The way you can avoid the deceitfulness of riches because every person I'm talking to here is rich, is be more content and be more generous. Be thankful for what you have and give more away so that you don't get tied to it. Make sense?

And then what's the desire for other things? The desire for other things is when you sit here in church today and you're not think you're thinking about everything but what we're talking about. You're thinking about everything but Jesus. You're thinking about everything you gotta do this afternoon. The games you gotta watch, the places you gotta go, the Christmas presents you gotta buy, the places you gotta be, the family dinner you gotta make the people that are coming, rah, rah, rah.

But you don't really have time to pause and think about Jesus because there's too much going on right now. Here's what we would say in our culture, friends, the American dream is to have a life where you don't have to worry, but you can focus on yourself all the time and you have all the wealth you need and you don't need to think about Jesus. This is the weedy soil, you live in it and if you're not aware of it, it's dangerous. Because what does it do? This whole disposition to control is the American way.

And what happens when the seed gets put into the weedy soil? It chokes it, it kills it, it's no good, there's, there's no harvest here either. So whether you're the hard heartened atheist or agnostic or I'm just a nice person that's not going to believe in Jesus. Whether you're one that got really fired up because you had a tingly moment, but now you're not with him anymore, you're gone. Because when you're faced with doing the things of Jesus, you didn't want Jesus, you wanted your comfort.

Or whether you're living in the world where the things of this world worry, wealth, riches and other things are consuming you, here's what Jesus said. You have no part of me. You falsely believe that you're a Christian. That's shocking, isn't it? Because in most churches in America, here's the gospel they preach.

Stay in the weedy soil, be as rich as you want. Do whatever you want. Make your life all about you, as much as you want. And all the worldly pleasures that you want, you want that, I want that. Just make sure as you're pursuing all those things that are completely sinful that you name Jesus somewhere along the line and you'll be fine.

Please find me that verse in the Bible and I'll preach differently. Please find me the verse that says you get to live your life for you. And on the moment of your death, Jesus just says, hey, sinner, you've been all about you, but just come on in, find me the verse. I'll preach different. You won't find it.

Because Jesus Christ is holy, holy, holy. He will not take you in your sin. Which means if you have ears, you better listen to what I'm saying. I'm talking to some of you today that are in weedy soil. Some of you that have been to church your whole life, some of you that have served in cadres.

Friends, there are pastors. In weedy soil, there are elders in weedy soil, there are church leaders. In weedy soil, there. There are politicians. In weedy soil, there's weedy, weedy, weedy all over the place.

Listen, I'm encouraged when I see somebody in the public sector give praise to Jesus, thank Jesus as their personal. I love that. But it's a little disheartening to me when I hear somebody say it in a cavalier way as if. I know your life and I know you sing about the devil and devil worship, but yet you will say, I'm a Christian, I give praise to Jesus. No, that's not the Jesus we've been talking about here.

Just cause you live in America and just because you go to church and just cause you give money and just because you're in a cadre and just because you serve in the corps doesn't make you a Christian. And there's numerous people. I believe this false gospel for years. I can do whatever I want and be whoever I want and not want Jesus that much. Because I prayed a prayer and that means everything.

Friends, you do not want to appear before the glorious majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ and him say, why should I let you in? And you say, well, because I prayed a prayer when I was 12. I mean, have you ever noticed this? Because I've told you, I've officiated a lot of funerals. I've never been to one where people have walked up to me and said, hey, good luck.

That person's totally in hell. Even though I've been to several where I know that's exactly where they are. Oh, man, he's up in heaven. I had one. I know Joe's up in heaven having a cocktail.

I'm like, joe is not in heaven. Joe is not having a cocktail. And Joe's not having any fun at all, all right now. And I know that. And I stood up and said, hey, I know all of you are here to celebrate his life.

And if Joe were here, he'd tell you two things. Number one, heaven and hell are real places. And number two, if you don't trust Jesus, you won't be in heaven. It's real, right? And so that's what we have to wrestle with and grapple with because we live in a culture that just says, oh, you're fine.

You're totally good. Don't worry about it. The gospel is nothing more than head knowledge of knowing. Jesus died and rose. Friends, the devil believes Jesus Christ died and rose.

The devil believes the Holy Spirit dispenses his life and ministry inside a believer. He knows all this. Don't buy the lie. Don't buy the lie. Friends, Jesus says in Matthew 7, not everyone who says to me, lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven.

Do you realize on Judgment Day, there will be pastors, there will be elders, there will be church leaders, bishops, cardinals, people that stand before the Lord. And they'll hear these words, depart from me, you worker of iniquity. I never knew you well. We didn't have a relationship. You made up who I am, and you certainly didn't live for me.

Sobering, isn't it? It was just as quiet in first service, too. Just so you know, because we don't hear this message, we don't hear the truth. And if you don't get this, you don't understand anything else. Jesus Christ demand is for full, unadulterated allegiance.

I mean, we understand, like Judas Iscariot, Jesus called him a son of the devil. We understand he didn't go to heaven. We understand he died in his sins and went to hell. We understand all that. But do you realize during his earthly ministry, he seemingly did everything else?

All the other apostles did? I mean, every other apostle went out and preached, seemingly Judas did. Every other apostle went out and healed, seemingly Judas did. Every other Apostle went out and cast out demons. Seemingly every other apostle did, right?

So what happens on judgment day? Jesus said, not everyone that says to me, lord, Lord will enter the kingdom. Many will come to me on that day, say, lord, do we not prophesy in your name? Did we not heal? Did we not cast out demons?

And then they'll hear those words, depart from me, you worker of iniquity. I never knew you. Friends, you can be here and you can act Christian and you can look Christian. I don't even know because I don't have the ability to look into your heart. Here's the question.

When did Jesus Christ transform everything about you that you wanted him? Because the hard hearted and the worldly hearted and the heart that is hardened, shallow, worldly won't enter the kingdom of heaven. But I got good news because there is a group that does get in. And Jesus talks about this. He said other seeds fell on good soil and as they grew up, they increased and they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty and a hundredfold.

He who has ears, let him hear. Huh? What's he mean by that? Verse 20 tells us, and those are the ones on whom the seed was sown on the good soil. And when they hear the word and accept it, they bear fruit 30, 60 and 100 fold.

So this is a fourth soil. This is called good soil. Now here's what I want you to see. There's nothing wrong with the seed. It's the same seed that falls on every single soil.

There's nothing wrong with the seed. There's nothing wrong with Jesus. There's something wrong with your heart. And here's what he's saying. He's saying in this final story of what's going on, here's the shock that when the message of Christ is preached, it's productive in the receptive heart.

It's productive in the receptive heart. It produces something in the receptive heart. Now my grandfather was a farmer. My dad grew up being a farmer. I don't know much about farming, but from what I could research In Israel, a 4 to 8% yield in your harvest was a good year.

Jesus said, if my seed, my word, who I am, gets in your heart, you will always produce 30, 60 or 100 fold. I mean, unbelievable harvest. Now here's the key. You don't produce anything. Only the Holy Spirit does.

So it's not about you working. It's about if you've truly been repentant and surrendered to him in receiving him as a child would receive, then you can have Life in his name. And when you do, he's going to grow your ministry. What are you saying, Jeff? I'm saying every single true believer produces a thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold harvest.

Everyone bears fruit. Jesus said in John 15, it is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit and prove to be my disciples. So you said I need to have fruit to be a Christian depends on what you're asking. To be born again is just grace. It's just grace.

Pastor Jeff, this doesn't feel like grace to me. I'm not happy with your message so far. Haven't you read Ephesians 2:8:9? Yes. For by grace you've been saved.

Through faith is not your own doing. It's a gift of God. So no one should boast grace is God's unmerited favor to you. That says, here's the gift, take. But the only heart I'll take is the receptive surrendered heart.

I'm not going to come in and be a sidedy for you. I'm not coming in to be resident. I'm coming in to be president. You don't want me to rule your life. You don't want me to be your Lord.

I'm not coming. I am the Lord. I'm not coming in so I can sit on the sidelines so someday you can quote, make me Lord, I am the Lord. I want to come to you. I died for you.

I rose for you. Come into my life. If you bring the Lord in, you will be saved by nothing that you do, by all that Jesus has done. But can I tell you about this grace that saves is the same grace that grows In Titus chapter 2, verses 11 and following, it says, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men. So it's by grace.

That's how anybody saved. But notice what it says, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus. So the same grace that saves you, if you've really truly been saved, then there's that same grace in you that's going to grow you to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live righteous and godly in the present age. Like that's what's going to happen. It's automatic.

Like if you're saved, you'll grow. Every Christian does. If you've been a believer, quote unquote, for like Five years and there's no change in your life. Ask yourself, are you really a believer? Cause at funerals, when I ask people were they a believer?

Well, he beat his wife, he left his wife, he's a drunk. He's all this. But I'm telling you, like 40 years ago at a camp, he like, prayed the prayer. So I think he's in heaven. No, he's not.

No, he's not. You don't die in your sin and go to heaven. You don't. Now, you can be ongoing repentant. And maybe in the last moment, when you get hit by a truck on i25, you blurt out a cuss word and God knows that you're forgiven.

I mean, I get all that. I'm not talking about individual things. I'm talking about your heart that's grown. Because I know how I've grown. I haven't grown because of me.

I haven't grown because of who I am. I've grown because of the grace of God in my life. And I can tell you, the further I remove myself from when I became born again, the less and less I would ever want to go back there. The less I like even talking about what I was. The less I like remembering what I was, and the less I want to be like what I was.

I want to move forward. I don't want to go back. And that's the heart of every single born again believer. And too many people that are trying to grow in the church. The problem is why you're trying to grow is not that you're trying to grow.

The problem is you're not even saved. And if you're not saved, but you're trying to live out kingdom principles, it's impossible. Cause only the Holy Spirit inside of you that can do it. Like if over and over and over again, you're like, I'm gonna repent. I'm gonna get better.

I'm gonna repent. I'm gonna get better. And 30 years from now, you're like, nothing's changed. Examine yourself. Because I'm telling you, there's a lot of Americans living in thorny soil.

They're gonna be shocked on Judgment Day when they meet the Lord, who really don't know the Lord. Cause they've never trusted the Lord, but they just believe that, hey, I was doing what every other American did, But I went to church too, so I thought I was going to heaven. I prayed a prayer. It didn't do anything for me, but I prayed it doesn't. God love me.

Yeah. He loved you enough to pursue you and tell you. And I'm here today to tell you I love you enough. And I'm pleading with you enough to say, don't die in your sin. You must be born again.

Bring all your sin to Jesus, give it to him, and he will extend to you all of his mercy and forgiveness and grace. He'll extend to you all of his life. So you can have it. You can just have it. And even if you hate this message, because some of you do, and whether you're getting up because you got to go to the bathroom or you've had enough, I don't know.

But if you're leaving here, I got good news for you. The Holy Spirit's going to chase you down and he's going to keep this on your heart. Like you can't escape this. You're gonna think about it for every day for the rest of your life. It's like a beach ball under.

You can't keep it down. It's gonna keep coming up until you repent and believe because God loves you that much. But friends, here's what I want you to see. What I want you to see is you just never know what God's doing. Some of you would say, well, I'm not.

I'm not an evangelist. I'm terrible at this. You know, I've shared my faith a few times. Nobody ever comes to Christ. I'm terrible.

You don't know that. You don't know that. I have a really good friend who's a pastor back in the Midwest who tells the story about how he got saved. He was going to school out on the west coast and a bunch of Campus Crusade guys came, shared the gospel with him. He wanted nothing to do with it.

Hardened heart. So they went and got some higher ups at Campus Crusade, took him to lunch. The guy that was leading the campus started walking him through what the gospel was. And he said, jeff, the whole time all I did was reject everything he was saying. But what he didn't know is it was penetrating everything I was.

I couldn't disagree with anything he was saying. They left the meeting thinking I was just one of those hardened hearted people. What they didn't realize is that night I went back to my dorm room and prayed and repented and I trusted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. He said, I didn't know how to ever find him again. So here we are, 30 some years later, they think they failed in their evangelism.

And I'm pastoring a church. Friends I'm just telling you, you don't know what your gospel presentation is. I talked to a guy in our church this week. He was sitting in my office as we were just having a conversation. It just came out of nowhere that he got saved last year and our Christmas Eve service.

And as he was talking about it, his eyes started filling with tears about all that the Lord has been doing in his life. And it motivated me. You just don't know it means we continue to pray. Cause I don't have the ability to look at you and be like, oh, you're hard hearted, no use for you. Oh, you're shallow hearted, no use for you.

Oh, you're worldly, no use for you. No, I can point these things out, but only you and God know where you're at. The Lord knows those who are His. But when you think about Jesus message, when he came out, he didn't say, hey, you know what? I love you and if you invite me in your heart, we'll have a good life together.

Go do whatever you want to do. He said, anyone who would come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. I'm not ready for that kind of thing yet. Then you're not ready for the God of the universe to be on the inside of your life. Friends, it comes through repentance and faith.

Jesus is either the Lord or He's not. It's kind of like you're either pregnant or you're not. He's either king of your life or he's not. There's no middle ground here. So my pleading with you December 22, 2024, is please, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart.

Give him your life. Yeah, but I've been going to church for 30 years. It'd be kind of embarrassing. It would not be embarrassing at all. What would be embarrassing is for you to stand bare before the Lord Jesus Christ when you meet him face to face and be cast off into an eternal hell.

That would be embarrassing coming to Christ, man. I'm telling you, there's angels in heaven that would rejoice if that's you. Friends, I'm telling you. In our, in our culture, there are pastors that need to come to Christ, elders that need to come to Christ, whole churches and movements that need to come to Christ. They just are.

But what we say is, well, if you put church on the side of your building, I think everybody in there is probably good. They just do it a little different. No, if you're not hearing this message, you're not a believer. Jesus said, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. Peter said, repent.

Paul said, I now command all men everywhere to repent. What? Because the gospel is not about what you pray. The gospel is about a life transformation where Jesus comes in and takes over. So here's the question.

When did Jesus come into your life and take over? Like, when did he become the Lord of your life? When did you tell him, you can have full reign, you can have full rule. You can do whatever you want. I'll just do what you want.

When did that happen for you? Because if you say, I'm not ready for that, I don't think I've ever had that experience. Make today the day. Make today the day. Do not walk out of this place without Jesus Christ being Lord of your life.

Because here's the gift. The greatest gift God ever gave was the gift of his son, Jesus Christ. You can't have a greater gift. I don't care, kids, what you're looking for for Christmas. There's no greater gift.

There's no amount of money. There's no amount of worldly. There's nothing you can have that's greater than Christ. So here's the question. Are you religious or do you have Jesus?

God wants you to have a son. He wants you to have a son. So as we close today, I'm gonna give you opportunity to do that. I'm not gonna embarrass you. I'm not gonna make you stand up.

I'm not gonna make you raise a hand. I'm not gonna make you sign a card. I'm not gonna make. Because God knows He sees you. He knows what you are, and he knows what you need.

And if you're hearing his voice, don't harden your heart. Because all four soils took place today, right? There's some that are gonna walk out of here and say, never coming back there again. Some that are gonna say, yeah, I think I'm already there, but I'm not ready to be obedient to Jesus yet. There's some that are so into the thorns that it makes you mad to think you have to separate from the things of the world.

And yet there are some here that are like, I want them in my life. Pastor Jeff, you're telling me that if I welcome Jesus in my life, I will produce a harvest 100%? You will. You'll produce 30, 60, or 100 fold. You'll have an incredible harvest.

There'll be fruitfulness in your life that other people will see. There's It's a guarantee for every single believer. So examine yourself, make sure you're in the faith, because what we're doing here is just temporary. It's just a warm up for what eternity looks like when we spend time with Jesus. And you want to be ready for that.

And I love you enough to prepare you. Amen. Would you stand with me? Our Father in heaven, we give you praise, glory and honor for this message. Jesus, you told this parable.

It's shocking. It was shocking then, it's shocking now because it shows how few really are walking with you. If you're here today and you would say, I, I don't know where I'm at, I don't know that I've ever welcomed him in, then don't wonder any longer. You make today the day of salvation in your life. You let Jesus be the Lord of your life.

Now, you could pray something like this, but it's not magic. But if it's a desire that expresses your heart, pray something along these lines. Jesus, I want you to be the Lord of my life right now. I believe you died on the cross for all my sins. I believe you rose from the dead to show you are truly God's one and only son.

I know I'm a sinner. I know I'm dead. I know I'm blind. But today I recognize that you're God. Come into my life and be my Lord.

I give you all my sin in exchange for all of your forgiveness in life. Lord, come into my life. Do whatever you want with me. I now belong to you and I'm yours, Father. I pray for every heart here that they would just continue to hear your voice as you minister to them.

Lord, we celebrate you. We celebrate in the season the gift of your son, Jesus Christ. And we pray your grace over each and every person here. May you be high and lifted up. May you be exalted.

We give you all the glory, all the honor and all the praise in Jesus name, amen and Amen. Can we give God praise for who he is?