Again, my name is Drew. Glad that you're here. Really excited to get to open the word with you today. And we are in the Book of Mark, so we're going to continue in the Book of Mark. We are in chapter four of Mark. I want to start. I want to start by telling you a little story to just. I'm going to tell you a story, and I want you thinking, what's the point of this story?
Which maybe you feel that often when you hear a story, but I'm going.
To tell you a story of. Of my ancestors, the Viking people. If you can imagine a group of Vikings from the fjords of Norway who all gather together and they get on a sweet Viking boat and they sail around, and they find themselves eventually in this valley.
In.
In a valley that's all like a forest. And this valley opens up. It's beautiful. There's mountains. And as they're there, they're ready. They're thinking, we're gonna, like, build our own city here, our own town here. We're going to start a new Norway here in this little valley. Suddenly, out of the woods, they hear noise, and these giant bears come and they attack them.
All the.
All the stuff will be on the.
Sides, I think, all the screens.
They come and attack them, right? And these Vikings fight really hard, but in the end, these bears take them out, and the Vikings are never heard from again.
That's a crazy story, right?
That would be if. So if I was talking to you and I said, man, I want you to understand something. Maybe, like, really understand it. And you're like, I'm not getting what you're saying. Let's say, like, there's a football game that was happening today, and I wanted to explain to you what I thought was going to happen. I could tell you a story that would then illustrate to you how I thought that game was gonna go, right? And it actually. It sinks in different, right? Like, this is why we love movies and love reading a story. That the thing we're learning, the main point, right? It kind of sinks in. You really hits you. And maybe you understand it better if you went, like, I don't. The Vikings and bears are playing today. Okay, what do you think? And I went, oh, you gotta hear this. Now you're. Now you'll go home today and you'll go, like, what did Drew think of. What does Drew think is gonna happen today in the cave? I don't know. I actually don't know if that really happened. But it's fun to tell stories of Vikings Losing. So it's. But I could tell you that story, right? Or what if it happened at the end next week? If I told you this story, hey, how did it go? What was happening last Sunday? And I go, let me tell you a story.
They go.
And you go, oh, the Vikings definitely lost. Like, they got decimated by the Bears.
In football last week.
This. That was at one point in the end, I want you to know the Vikings didn't win. That is in essence what a parable is. And you probably know this, right?
You've heard of parables.
If you've been around church, maybe even not church, you've heard of parables. We're getting into a section now of Mark where Jesus. Mark records Jesus's parables. Jesus tells these stories. They're real situations, real things that happen that help us understand something else. So the story isn't necessarily a real thing that happened, but it helps kind of clear up or understand a very important thing that even just brings life to a thing. You've heard. You've heard a lot of these, right? There's 27ish parables of Jesus. Some are very short. We've actually already heard a few of these where Jesus even. He just tells. Like when he said earlier in Mark, like, the physician comes for those who are sick in a moment, right? He's actually helping you understand there's a.
Doctor who's coming, there's people who are sick. He's giving you a picture, right?
And sometimes the stories are a little bit longer.
These parables are longer.
And they're not so that you go, oh, when did that happen? But it's so that you come out with.
You go, that he's helping me understand a very important thing.
And so today we start into those and one of the most famous, one of the longest parables, one of the parables where he actually tells us what.
The parable is about, which is such.
A gift because some of them he just tells us and we go, oh, what are we supposed to get out of that? This one is really helpful because he does explain to us what he wants. So we are in the Book of Mark. We're in Mark 4 today. If you want to open your Bibles, we do have Bible journals if you want one. We still have some. They're out on the communion tables in the hallway. A lot of us have been using those because you can mark them up and write in them and take notes.
As we kind of journey through Mark together.
But Jesus said he loves to sit. He loves to share this story. And it helped clear up essentially what.
The kingdom of God was like.
And they said, I don't understand this. This idea of, like, God coming and showing grace. And it's going to get even harder to understand. There's going to be a. Our God's going to come and actually die on a cross and raised from the dead. That. That sounds like you're out of your mind, right? That's. He's going to help clear up what is that. These parables at least give us a taste of.
Of what that is.
And so we're going to read this first parable. It's 20 verses in the beginning of Mark. And as we've been doing, I'm going to have you stand up and I'm going to read to you the parable of the sower, or the parable of the soils, or the parable of the hearers, or the parable of the seeds. It has lots of names. But today we're going to hear this.
Story of seed that's being thrown on the ground and what happens to it. All right, let me start here with us in Mark 4. Beautiful. Jared, you got the slides for me? Thanks, man.
Again, he began to teach beside the sea, and a very large crowd gathered about him. So he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea. And the whole crowd was beside the.
Sea, on the land.
And he was teaching them many things in parables. And in teaching, he said to them, listen, behold, a sower went to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell in the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil, and immediately sprang up, since it had no depth in soil.
And then when the sun rose, it's.
It was scorched. And since it had no root, it withered away.
Other seed fell in thorns, and thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And the other seeds fell into good.
Soil and produced grain, growing up and.
Increasing and yielding 30 fold and 60.
Fold and a hundredfold. And he said, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.
And when he was alone, those around him with the 12 asked him about the parables.
And he said to them, to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for those outside, everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see, but not perceive, may indeed hear, but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven. And he said to them, do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all parables?
The Sower sows the Word.
Now he's going to explain to us.
The sower sows the Word.
And these are the ones along the path where the Word is sown. When they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on the rocky ground, the ones who, when they hear the Word immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves and can endure for a while. And then when tribulation or persecution arises on the account of the Word, immediately they fall away.
And others are the ones sown among thorns and they are the ones who hear the Word. But the cares of the world and deceitfulness of riches and the desires of.
Other things enter in and choke the Word and it proves unfruitful. But those who were sown in the good soil are the ones who hear the Word and accept it and bear fruit 30, fold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold. Let me pray. Lord, thanks for your word.
We pray it would just become alive today in us, that you would use it to just to work in our hearts, to take the stony parts of our heart and make it flesh. And that you would draw us towards.
You and towards your son, and that Christ would be exalted today. Amen.
All right, you can have a seat. We're going to take minutes here to look through this picture.
You've probably seen this, not seen this, but you've.
You've seen this parable before, right? These pictures of the soils, the seed going down. It's a picture that illustrates an agricultural community. And for some of us that might be very familiar and I would guess for a bunch of us maybe not so familiar, but also an agricultural community that's not today. Like when I think farming, I think of my brother in law. I think of many, many acres, I think of enormous machinery. I think, I think a riding in his combine and watching a movie while like GPS and computers drives it. It's incredible, right? That's not what was happening then. It's a little different farming. There's. Everyone in the community would have known farming would have been around farming, they said, from the most educated person, religious leader to the actual person named as a farmer would all have farming even.
In their weekly routine.
Everyone's around it, it's normal. This picture, he just says, here's a story of these things that happened.
And they would all go, oh, I know exactly. I've seen it happen. We've seen it happen. We probably can look around us and see it happening around us. So what a great picture, right?
And he's explaining to his disciples and.
To the people what the kingdom of God looks like.
And you can't forget the context of this. We've just read for three chapters about all these things that are happening. Jesus comes to earth. He's born, he's baptized. God declares him his Son, and he keeps proclaiming this kingdom. He keeps saying, the kingdom of God's here. Here's really good news. I've come to rescue you from sin and death, from Satan's rule. I'm gonna heal you. I'm gonna give you rest. All these amazing things he's doing as he's healing and performing miracles. And then everyone around him is responding different. They're seeing people who want to kill him to people who are really excited and fall away.
So he's explaining what's happening right around them. So let's just go through each of.
These parts and kind of.
So we know what we're dealing with here. Quick, with the sower. And then what do we do with this parable first?
Right? The sower sows the word. So in this parable, it might be obvious, and Jesus shares this, but there's a sower, a farmer who. Who cast seed out. And the sower is really important to understand.
And even this word, the word here, is very important for us to understand.
It might feel like this seems like.
A really terrible farmer.
So you're like, jesus, why would you explain God in a way that he's like, can't aim where he throws the seed. He's not trying to describe how good he is at throwing the seed. In fact, some of the things I had read, I read a historian of the first century, and he was saying, I was in the region of Galilee, and the farmers would just throw their seed all over. They'd plant all over. And then wherever the seed did land on good soil, then they would go.
And tend to it and they'd fertilize it and they'd rake it in.
And it was like that, this part of how it worked, it wasn't like.
We had fields and fields and machinery, and we weren't, like, using GPS and soil samples to know where to put, like, more potassium.
So they would just would throw the seed and they go find where the.
Seed had actually landed in good soil, and they would nurture it and care for it, and they might even pick up other seed and bring it to that.
And so this sower, this is just a picture of what it would look like then. And the sower is not us, but it is a our God who throws a seed. I think this is important here. We see this throughout the Gospels, but there's this Word. And sometimes in Scripture we just. When we see Word, we just think.
Bible as in like he's just throwing scripture at people.
But we need to understand too. Even like in the Book of John, we get a great picture of what this Word is. It's not just a language that's spoken.
Or written or not just said to.
People, but it's actually in form of.
A person who comes to share.
As Jesus shares the good news. He's not just saying stuff to people. He's not just a good speaker. He's actually like embodied the Word.
He's come.
And so we see this actually in.
Mark or in John 1. This is from.
This picture is cool. If you don't know, this is a good Minnesota history. This is from the St. John's Bible.
Which is this really cool illuminated text that was the hand calligraphied.
I don't know if that's the term the Bible. And it was actually done in Minnesota. And you could see some of these.
Really cool artworks at the Basilica Basilica downtown in Minneapolis. Anyway, I got to see this and it's really cool.
But this is a picture of John 1. So John 1:1 says this. In the beginning was the Word, capital W. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and.
Without him, not anything made was made. In him was life, and life was the light of men. The light shines in darkness. The darkness has not overcome it. This is the Christmas verse from John, right? There's this thing person called the Word, who was God. And with God, this Jesus.
And the Word actually comes to dwell.
With us, this light, to push out darkness.
And so I think as we're thinking about a sower sowing the Word here, we're getting a picture that God has sent this seed, this Word to his people. And we can't. I don't want us to miss in here that the point of this parable is like you should hear Bible verses.
And listen to them.
The point, I think is that like.
The Word came to us himself. And. And then how do people respond to that Word? Who brings the Word of God? Because he is the Word of God.
So that's who's. That's who's dead in the picture. That's who's casting out. It's God. And Jesus comes. He's come, he's on the scene. We've seen this now. We've heard all these stories of what looks like as Jesus moves into people's lives. And then he talks about these four different situations, these kind of four different people, how this plays out when the word of God interacts, moves towards people. And it really depends on kind of.
Where they're at in that moment, in that time.
The first one talks about the sea landing on this hard, hardened ground, this pathway that people over and over have stepped on and walked on and rolled things over that probably has become muddy and then it got crushed down. It's like hard and clay ground. It's not good, right? It's like cement in that.
The.
The seed just lands on it and.
There'S nowhere for it to even put roots.
In fact, there's not even time really for it to put roots in because the birds know there's this hardened ground and it's there. And so quickly this good news that.
Comes to them is whisked away because Satan has already is there.
Like a bird coming just to pick up the seed.
He comes and snatches that away from them.
This gives a little picture of like Genesis 3, which we looked at last week. This picture of Satan coming, convincing people maybe God doesn't have the best intentions. Maybe you don't need God.
Maybe you could be essentially God.
And so this first one is a person who comes with a heart that is going like, I've already kind of believed what the world has said and.
What Satan has said, and I'm.
I'm all in.
And they have a really hardened heart, maybe even a stone heart, you could say. Have you ever felt like this? Like you.
Maybe there's so many lies, maybe not even intentionally, but so many lies from the pit of hell that it's hard.
After a while to not become hardened, to just believe them and just go.
Just tough to get you kind of compact. There's been so much pressure and. And pushing in that you felt like.
You were just a hard path.
That even when I hear the good.
News, when I under. When I hear the grace of God, when I.
When I come on a Sunday and I. And again we sing songs, it's like.
But those aren't for me. How much do we feel sometimes like we have been in this place, that my heart is stony, that even you might want to. But it feels like so quickly Satan reminds you that you're not what God says you are. I think the more and more I.
Believe the world, the more and more.
I listen to the world around me.
And not what God has for me.
The more I become this.
And then when I hear the good.
Word, I'm just not even in a place to come close to even digging a little root in. Definitely felt trampled down and felt this.
So he says that's happened. We've seen that happen. We've also seen, and we'll continue to see this rocky ground where a seed falls and can get a little bit of root in, but it's not very deep and maybe springs up very quickly, but then the scorching sun and the roots, not very deep, ends up withering and dying. This is. I mean, this one probably, if you've experienced, like, you've been in the church at all for some of your life, this is like a classic mountaintop experience. This is like. All my friends in college would go off to this, like, winter Jesus jam. I forget what they called it, but they all went off this thing. And then in January, everyone was so fired up. It was like the peak of evangelism on campus. You could tell everyone went off to something because they came back, like, and everybody was telling everyone about Jesus. You got, like, asked if you knew.
Where you're going when you died every day on the way somewhere.
And then it kind of fades off and there's this, like, joke about, oh.
It kind of fades off.
They're all pretty excited about Jesus.
And now it's just the hardship, right, of the world.
The scorching sun around them slowly weaken them, which maybe is a.
Feels like a far off moment in your life, right?
Maybe you go like, oh, I do remember that happening.
I remember happening over and over as we took youth to things. But I think daily, daily this can happen.
I. Today I was telling Jared this story. This morning I woke up and I.
Had this, like, man, I'm excited that we get to talk about the parable of Sower.
I'm excited to worship with my church family. And I was. I actually, like, moved quicker. I don't always move real quick. At like 6 o' clock in the morning, I was moving quicker. And so I was like, moving down the stairs in my house. Everyone was sleeping and I was moving down the stairs and I said out loud, all right, God, what do you got today? Because I was, like, feeling it. And I got to the bottom of.
My stairs and I turned and there was a huge gift that my dog.
Had left me on the carpet on our rug. It was like, before I get the words out, God, what do you got today?
And I went, oh, Frank left Me something.
Apparently, in the middle of the night, he decided to scoot away. And then he trotted back in our room in the middle of the night. So I assume that's what he trotted off to do. And I went, oh, that's what you have for me today. Cool. That's a lot of days, I think. I mean, you might not literally get the little pile that I got to clean up, but. Right. What do you got today? Maybe you get up and you're. You're in a devotional or on the way to work. I'm listening to some music or something. Just really encouraged me. I got a text from a friend. I'm encouraged by the Word. And then something just right away, right? The sun scorches you, and you're like.
Now I'm cleaning up this stuff. I think this happens daily to me.
It's like, oh, yeah. I identify with this one as well. Have you felt this? Do you feel like there's a certain hardship that's even like your kryptonite, like, you're just man. I believe the gospel grace is on me. I'm feeling the joy of the Lord. And then there's a.
There's certain things that are, like, just stronger sunbeams that scorch me, certain things that just very quickly cause me discomfort.
And I can.
It can knock me out of my. My connection to the Lord. Or just that. Believing that goodness. What makes you question that? Maybe just a voice that you hear.
A lie, maybe a feeling of discomfort, maybe an actual thing. There's a substance in your life that you.
That you hold on to, that maybe does that. I think just weariness of lots of things.
And then he goes on, he says, there's actually another response that we see is the good news is the Word comes before people. And this is actually a plant that does get some roots in and does grow. But then these vines come around it. You see how these all kind of.
They're blurry or they're not as clear.
I think, as when I first read it. I feel like I move in and out of these things, and one maybe leads to another almost. But this. This one. These vines come in and choke it. This is to remind us that the cares of the world, deceitfulness of riches, desires of other things. He's explaining idolatry, not in. Like, I have a statue that I look at and say, you're God, but I've chosen something else to be more than more important.
Or I put my hope in something.
Outside of Jesus, or I've Searched for pleasure outside of Jesus or power or comfort. Ultimately, I go, it's in this other thing. It's gotta give me this thing. And then that, like, fails you and it, like, chokes you. It's like, I put everything in this, and now it's, like, hard to. To breathe. I'm not as fruitful as I thought I was going to be.
It did not give me what I thought it was going to be.
Even these very good things I make.
Into these little gods, and they don't do it.
And it's like a vine that gets around a plant and chokes on its weeds that take over your lawn. It's this picture of, like, if you consider someone who has a really serious illness and they are given the medicine.
For it, and they go, yeah, yeah.
Okay, I got the medicine. And then they maybe start feeling better and they go like, oh, I don't need to finish taking the medicine because.
I feel good now. And they turn to other things and they realize they needed that medicine to stay well. It's us turning to the things around us. I think I see this often in my life in comfort. I think this is uncomfortable, so I gotta move away from this. Even if it is what God has called me to.
Not believing that suffering comes with this.
Joy in my walk. Do you ever feel this? What grabs your attention, what grabs your affections that in the end actually choke out Jesus and you find yourself actually withering in a pile of thorny weeds all day? This feels like, oh, maybe that's the one I am.
Have you ever taken, like, a personality test? And you go, like, I think I'm that one. And they read the next description. You go, like, maybe that one. And you go like, well, at home on that one. And then, like, at work, I'm that one. And then with my kids, this one, and certain friends on this one. I feel like different moments in my day. These are pictures of where I find myself. And then Jesus gives us this beautiful last one, right? It's the plant that does grow, that does have roots. And the surprising thing, parables usually have kind of a surprise or even like an exaggerated thing to emphasize. He says, this is a plant that grows and not just grows, but gives.
Thirty or sixty or a hundredfold fruitfulness return.
That's an amazing amount. That's a strawberry bush that grows hundreds of strawberries. It's so heavy, it falls over. Everyone comes and can't wait to eat the tasty, delicious strawberries. It's this beautiful picture.
You go, oh, there's sometimes the roots do get in. Sometimes the plant does grow, and sometimes they do see the leaves come out.
And nothing chokes it.
And the sun doesn't burn it, and it actually starts producing strawberries. I just. I love strawberries so I can, like, taste fresh. Oh, they smell so good.
You can just eat them right off the plant.
What does that look like? Oh, oh, he says.
And then that happens, which we're seeing happen as well. Jesus is healing people, and we're seeing people go from withered on paths choked by vines, to alive. Think of the man who was lowered by his friends into a house. And Jesus heals him and forgives him. He's, like, made whole, and he stands up and walks out. Looks actually very much like maybe planting something in the ground. And it. And it doing all the stuff it does. I'm not even going to use plant terms because I'll get them wrong. But it's like, it's watered and it sees the sun, and then it, like, comes out of that house, walks out of that house.
That guy. I would say that moment probably was producing some strawberries.
There's some people who got some tasty treats as he walked home, and they.
Heard more good news of this thing.
So what do we do with this? Right? We see this story of fertile soil of different plants. And my response this week, I got to study this with some different people. And I think every single one of us said, my first response is, what.
Do I do with this parable? I got to make some strategies to get better soil. I got to become a better farmer. I gotta get some sunscreen. I gotta get some kind of tennis racket. I can fight off birds with.
Like, I gotta figure out the strategy so that I can be the last plant. I think it's very normal. That's like, what is built into us. It's what we see in Genesis 3 in this. Like, okay, so the goal is God.
Wants you to figure out how to help yourself, right? And do it yourself.
I think Jesus here, over and over.
Throughout Mark and all the Gospels, he's.
Wanting to remind us, I'm telling you what's happening. And I also want to give you this picture that hopefully fills out itself.
Even more as the good news.
They haven't even. They haven't experienced yet Christ's death and resurrection. They haven't experienced his ascension into heaven and sitting on his throne like we have. I think Jesus here is not telling.
Us, hey, now, go out and write a book about the strategies to becoming a good soil. It's part of the cool Jesus was.
A good leader series to become a better leader and a better person. He's telling us something that's gonna change you, not just make you more fruitful so you could, like, achieve more or.
Make more or be a better friend.
He's telling you something that will change.
Your heart, that's gonna like, completely change you.
How does that work? Well, he actually says it kind of.
In the middle here in Mark 4, 9 through 12.
He says tells the parable.
And he says, he who has ears to hear, let him hear.
I think he actually quotes Isaiah here. He does this quote from Isaiah, which is actually in Isaiah right after Isaiah prophesies about this child who's going to.
Be born, who's going to be the prince of peace. Like the Christmas passage we all read in nine.
Right after that he says, but then some won't hear it, and some will hear, but not really hear. And they'll understand, but not really understand. And they won't turn and. And they won't be. And Isaiah says, won't be healed. Jesus says. He quotes it and says they won't be forgiven or made whole. Jesus wants us to hear the good news, to meet the good news, and to say yes, and then be healed and forgiven. To become one of these plants or.
To fight off one of these plants means to become. People who hear and turn are forgiven and healed.
So I'm telling you this parable I want you to see. This is what's happening. And there's going to be a way.
To be fruitful, and it's not you buying better fertilizer.
I like how the message Eugene Peterson says in the message, this passage, he.
Says here in Mark, you've been given.
Insight into God's kingdom. You know how it works. But to those who can't see it, everything comes in stories. Creating readiness, nudging them towards an awakening. Because these are people whose eyes are open, but they don't see things, whose ears are open but they don't understand the word, who avoid making an about face and getting forgiveness. God wants them to make an about face. He wants you to hear and turn and be forgiven and be healed. He wants you to hear and turn and be made right. How does this happen? This happens by hearing the good news. And we get the whole good news in that we get to know the.
Rest of this story, which is a.
Story of a seed that changes everything. In Ezekiel, we hear of this beautiful.
Picture of what this will be.
As he's talking about this coming king, I will sprinkle clean water on you.
And you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.
I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees.
And be careful to keep my laws.
It's like describing all of those plants. Some commentators are like, is. Is Jesus here announcing that he is.
This person in Ezekiel?
Because he's describing, you want someone who can help protect you from hardness and make you heart flesh again? That's me. Do you want someone who can protect you from the thorns that are going to come in? Who's better than any idol you could turn to? It's me. Do you want someone who can come in and shade you from the scorching sun?
That's me.
I want someone who can help plant you in soil and see you grow and blossom and produce fruit.
It's me.
We see this shared in John 2. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless.
A grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, and it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Jesus actually talking here to his disciples, and he's saying, I'm about to. It's time for me to go die. And they say, what? And he says, you have to plant a seed, and then life comes from it and it bears fruit. He's describing the gospel in this beautiful.
Image of a seed in 1 Corinthians. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead.
The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
The story of Jesus, the story of the gospel, the good news, the whole story the people in Mark hadn't experienced the whole story yet is a story of our God coming, being planted in the earth, experiencing hardness, experiencing the thorns, experiencing Satan, the birds coming to pick him and take him away, being planted in the ground and then growing and raising, and not just raising, being the first fruit that then provides all of.
The fruit for the rest of us.
Throughout church history, people often have referred.
To Jesus in this way, that he's the one who does these things.
Augustine said, he died, that he might be sown, and he was sown, that.
He might rise and he rose, that he might bear us as fruit, not beautiful. You're not going to look at plants the same.
When we plant something, we get a moment to illustrate the gospel in that. Martin Luther said, christ, our blessed seed, was sown in death and burst forth in life. That we may Cling to him should become his harvest. He's the sower and he's the seed, and he's making us all fruitful so.
That more could be harvested. Esau says this Jesus is the first.
Stalk of wheat in God's new world.
His rising is the beginning of God remaking everything.
When he comes out of that grave.
It'S like a shoot of wheat that changes everything. Now we know all people don't have to be the path, don't have to be the rocky soil, don't have to.
Have the vines go around them.
We can be fruitful, we can be alive.
And what do we do for that? What Jesus says, I want you to.
Hear this and I want you to turn to know who is truly the seed that has resurrected.
And as we turn, we're not just.
Forgiven, we're not just healed, we're rooted. We grow. We become fruitful, become alive. Our hearts are softened and we're protected.
If that's true, I want you just to consider it. This is the time of year that there's, like, one application that I go to often.
And maybe. Maybe you do as well, maybe not. But this is what I've been thinking.
About this week, because I see myself in those. I see myself also in the next weeks and months of my life, getting extra time around a table with family and friends. And that brings all sorts of emotions and love. It also feels like it's gonna be really tiring. I also, like, imagine certain people around the table who make it a little tougher. I also imagine people who make it really joyful and fun. There's a lot, right, that comes with, like, the holiday season is. They say all the anxiety goes up. Counseling goes way up. Counselors are like, we get really busy right now and right after. And a lot of it is this gathering around a table with different friends and family. Right? How do these play out?
This is what I've been thinking about, how these play out in my life.
In those categories, I think of myself.
So as we just real quick, just.
Consider these, I think of myself, how.
I become one of these or feel that.
And I also think of the person.
I'm sitting across the table from, hopefully a little more grace, understanding. Oh, maybe that's where they're at right now.
And what do they need is not a book on strategy or me to lecture them or me to, like, roll my eyes. It's. They need the same thing. I need the one who has been planted and has resurrected and now is the one.
The good gardener. The good Sower.
But think first the hardened path. This is a hardness, a disbelief. This is. Maybe you've experienced. This is a person. Maybe you've experienced an eye roll. If you bring up, like, hey, can we pray before we eat? And they, like, give the eye roll.
And you go, oh, okay. There's not a softness there, but a hardness, right?
Maybe even think of yourself in that way. The things that have happened in the place I'm going to visit or with the people I'm going to visit have really stomped down the path. And it's like just going into that place puts my heart in a very hard place. It's hard to believe grace. It's hard to believe untrue things about myself. It's hard to see people as image bearers. And so it's a place where we get the opportunity here to say, jesus, I need you to soften the soil. I need you to heal my heart. And I need you to do that with those I'm encountering, because so quick Satan comes and snatches it up.
It's very hard.
I think of myself as I move as a rocky soil person. This is one where I get excited. I find myself even in the car, like, praying. Sometimes the moment before I enter into a house, even I know, like, hey, I love hanging out with these people. Okay? God, I just want you. I don't know how you're going to use me or even just give me.
Patience and grace in this.
I'll listen to a podcast episode about how to be gracious around the holidays. And I'm feeling it. And then it takes sometimes seconds and.
You'Re in a place and someone says.
Oh, you didn't make it on time. We just thought you'd prioritize holidays. And you're like, thanks, sun be down. And I'm withered, right? I feel myself quickly forgetting the gospel and feeling the scorch of the sun. And I think those around us feel the same. Everyone else is also feeling those things. And so there's this. There could be this great joy and maybe even minutes into or hours into a time with people. You see the scorching sun kind of wither us. An opportunity to accept the grace of Jesus, to be sustained by his grace. What does it look like even in the midst of that, to continue in his grace? What does it look like in the midst. I have a friend who knew of, like, a hard conversation I had to have. This is years ago. And he knew I had to have it.
And he said, when are you doing that?
And I said, oh, it's like next week I'm hanging out with these people.
And we're having this kind of harder conversation.
And he goes, great. And he texted me in the middle of it. So I didn't like, see the text.
Because I was trying to engage people.
He texted me in the middle of.
It and said, I'm praying right now. I'm going to keep praying.
But there, even that, like, it went differently than I thought. And at the end there was like this encouragement because I was feeling withered by the end. That, like, encouraged me.
I thought, oh, I need to see another people even in that with me.
To continue to give me grace, to continue to give me some shade. Maybe considering. What does that look like? Maybe sometimes that looks like knowing when it's time to get out of the.
Sun because it scorches us. When it's time to maybe cool off in the shade somewhere because you know which sun's really scorches.
I think of also the thorns, right? This maybe is the way you've described.
Time around others, but I think it's.
In a time of Christmas, things like consumerism and stress become very distracting. I don't think we intend to have that happen.
I think it happens.
And so it's all around us, right? I'm getting like ad after ad after ad of things I can buy and deals I can get right now. And if I don't get them right now, then I'm not going to get the best deal. And see, like, consumerism washes over me and just stress and busyness. And you have those moments where you're like, I want to enjoy this time of year, but I'm also really looking forward to like, January 4th when it's all done. How do I enjoy this now? I think that is believing the good news. The word there is good news that brings great joy, is how Jesus is announced to shepherds.
I have great news.
It brings great joy.
How do we continue to cling? There is really good news in it. Continuing to hear the Word and having the Word in front of us and connecting to the word. And lastly, even just what does it look like to be people who are fruitful who grow?
I think this is an opportunity for us not to go. Like, I feel fruitful and I got.
A lot of strawberries, so I'm going to hold them because I know if I move into a certain situation, all the strawberries might get eaten up or I might get. I might get hurt a little bit or my roots might get pulled out a little bit. I think it's trusting that God has us in that and that we have the opportunity in that.
I think also just in surrounding ourselves.
With those who continue to encourage us and nourish us because they point us.
To Jesus, it's an opportunity for us to bring much more than hot dishes.
And gifts with us this year that we get to bring the good sower who can sow a very fruitful a hundredfold for those around us.
And why? Why can any of this happen? It happens because Jesus was pressed down. Satan tried his best to defeat him. He was scorched. He had thorns around his head as he was marched to a cross and was mocked and choked and buried and planted in the ground. But he did not stay in the ground, friends.
He rose and was fruitful far more than a hundred times.
Eternal times.
Is that a thing?
And he grew and defeated death and brings life and resurrection.
And that is true.
And how do we hold on?
That is true. How do I hold on to that? How can that good news bring us joy and healing and forgiveness? This year I invite you to our.
Worship team to come up so we can sing songs that remind us of this good news. A couple of things for you to consider here. They're on the screen. Will you hear and turn and be forgiven? It's step one. Can you hear that good news in.
Turn and be forgiven and healed? Maybe consider what soil are you feeling like today?
Or even as you walk into a moment somewhere, what are you feeling? What? Jesus, I need you today to protect me from this. I need you to be my shade. What does that look like? What? Even words, Actual scripture? Maybe you got to be memorizing, having.
Your heart that'll help us in that.
Who you help hear and turn to.
Jesus or who will help you? Who helps you do that? And who do you get to share good news with? What a fantastic opportunity we get to bear that fruit.
We also respond not just by reflecting on this. We respond by singing together, which we'll.
Do in a moment.
We also respond by taking communion. Jesus said, when you get together, remember that my body was broken. Remember that my blood was shed, that I was planted in the soil and then I resurrected. This is why we meet, to remember the resurrection of Jesus and that good news for us. So we do that out at the tables outside in the hallway. There's tables on both sides. Everyone's welcome. We ask you just to be a believer. Say, I do believe that I want.
To do this because it reminds me of this good news.
We do encourage you to do that at some point in the next three songs. So also people would love to pray for you in the back of the room.
It's a great opportunity to say, I'm feeling pretty hard. My heart's feeling very stony. Can you pray for me?
Or you know what? I am just joyful. Will you celebrate with me, love? They love to do that. So please take them up on that opportunity to pray. And you can always give as well.
To response to the gospel, to give.
Together we get to be generous and.
Experience that joy and also together support the work that we're doing to help more people know this good news.
Let me pray for us and then.
Our team will lead us to sing to this good, good God. Lord, thank you for your goodness, your kindness, your mercy, your grace that washes.
Over us.
That that tends to us.
And help makes us grow. It takes stone hearts that we could never make alive.
And you make them alive just miracle after miracle. I pray you would do that in us. I pray as we feel all the effects that we see here in this parable, that you would come and cut out those weeds, that you'd provide us.
With shade, that you'd till up the.
Hard ground, that you'd shoo Satan away, that he has no place in our life with you. Lord, I pray right now you'd work in us, change us, and make our hearts a little more fleshy and alive today. We love you, Lord. You're really good to us. Amen.