[0:00] That's a five spot. Appreciate it. I'm telling you, hands down, best teacher. No one might tell you.
[0:13] ! Praise God. I feel good this morning. No, I don't feel good anymore. My mom is here. I want to give her a shout out. My mama.
[0:30] Oh, she has stories. And I wish it was because of me, because I'm such a great speaker, but it's my daughter's birthday today. Isabella, happy birthday. Isabella, we'll sing her birthday a little later. But yeah, just super excited. Amen. Kids, you are dismissed.
[1:00] of scripture. I know it typically don't start like this, but it's good to change things up every now and again, right?
[1:41] Okay, we're going to go to the book of Mark, chapter 4. Book of Mark, chapter 4. We'll be reading out of the KJV.
[2:00] King James, where Grayson's super excited about that. In his Bible, one time, I was just looking for a name change and blah, blah, blah.
[2:14] And in his Bible, he wrote, KJV PBC for Life. He's tagging.
[2:26] Alright, here we go. Verse 1, and it says this, And he began to teach by the seaside. And there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship and sat in the sea.
[2:41] And the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. Verse 2, And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them and his doctrine.
[2:52] And a parable, you know, one of the better explanations I've heard it was it's a heavenly principle within the first name.
[3:06] Did I get that right? No? Just flip it around the key. There you go. That's the best way I've heard it. So, verse 3, Hearken, behold, there went out a sower to sow.
[3:21] And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, some fell as the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground, and when it had not much earth, it immediately sprang up.
[3:34] And because it had no depth of earth, but when the sun was up, it scorched, was scorched. And because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and some thorns grew up, and choked it, and yielded no fruit.
[3:52] And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up, and increased, and brought forth some thirty, some sixty, and some hundred.
[4:04] And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And that's what the word of the Lord is saying to us.
[4:15] That's what the Lord is saying to us this morning. He that hath ears to hear. He that hath ears, he or she, that has ears to hear.
[4:32] Young and old. College age, high school, middle school. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Amen.
[4:44] Let's pray. Father, we love you today. And we thank you, God, for your goodness, and your power, and your mind, oh God. We pray this morning, Lord, that you help us, Lord, to understand what your word is teaching us today, Lord.
[5:00] I'm asking God that you help every hearer, oh God, to hear the word, but not just hear, we doers of the word. And God, and even greater, Lord, to help our hearts be that soil, that good ground, God, that good soil, that we can, Lord, then take that word and it would help us to grow.
[5:20] I'm asking today, God, you help me to preach the word, do a good job. In the name of Jesus, we pray. And everybody said, in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.
[5:39] So the title of my message is this, Dirt, Don't Lie. Dirt, don't lie. And if we can make it a little more personal, your dirt, don't lie.
[5:55] My dirt, don't lie. As you read a little bit ago, we talked about some soil, some grounds, and some dirt. And Jesus was given a parable and given a general story so really his hearers could understand.
[6:12] But just from the get-go, I'd love for us to just get, just really just to decide, this is for me. Because every single one of us can relate to one of these soils.
[6:28] Every one of us can relate to these types of grounds. So let's just from the very get-go take some responsibility and say, hey, Lord, what soil am I?
[6:42] God, what ground am I? And then from there, God, where do I need to go? How do I grow from there? But I want to talk to you for a minute about a statistic that just kind of just jumped up at me and just really kind of made me pause.
[7:04] It says, the Barna Group did a study and it said 65% of Christians hear the word every week. 65%. 65%. But only 10% say it actually changed them.
[7:19] Just 10%. 65% gets the information, 10% gets the transformation. I said, God, don't let me be part of that 90.
[7:30] Lord, help me to not be a part of that group. And, because we all, we hear preaching, right? We hear preaching whether it's here in the church or whether it's on YouTube.
[7:42] And, again, you got to be very careful about, you know, what, who you're listening to and make sure it's doctrinally sound and that you're also searching the scriptures yourself.
[7:54] But, God, I don't want to be part of that 90. God, I want to be part of that group that does apply, that does get transformed by the preaching of the word, by the reading of the word.
[8:04] Amen? Don't let me hear sermons. without that ever really changing my heart. Don't let me hear a preached word without me walking away and not saying, God, how could that really apply to my life?
[8:21] Even in the middle of service, God, you know, maybe things are going great in my life, but, Lord, how could this, how could what was preached, how could that really apply to me on some level, on some way, God, that I can not just be better or be a better person, but, God, how could, I can just know you better.
[8:41] Amen? But that's what exactly, that's what Jesus wants to do. He wants to help us identify where we are as a ground or as a soil, but then he wants to take us from that place where we are and he wants to make us a different ground.
[9:02] Because ultimately he wants us to become good ground, right? He wants to take us from wherever we are to this good ground that could be fruitful.
[9:14] Amen? The word always works. Amen? Amen? The word never fails. But the soil doesn't always receive.
[9:26] And that's why this message is so important. That's why this parable is so important. This, this earthly story with a, a heavenly meaning. That's why it's so important.
[9:38] Because the word is good. It's the word of God. It goes forth. It's gonna, it's gonna do that which it was accomplished. It's not gonna return void. Amen, amen, amen, amen, right? But the soil, everyone say soil.
[9:53] My dirt, it don't lie. And sometimes that soil, that dirt, doesn't always receive. Because dirt don't lie.
[10:08] Do you ever sit in church or ever leave a service and go, wow, that was a great service. And someone says, hey, what did you preach? I don't know, but it was a good service. I don't know, but it was a good message.
[10:23] I've done that. I've gone to camp meetings. I've gone to senior camps. I've gone to youth services. And I go, and I tell, man, what a powerful service. What do you preach? Something about Jesus.
[10:35] Something about, you know, walking on water. I don't know. Or you walk out saying, it blessed my life.
[10:46] It challenged me. It changed me. I listened to the word. I heard the word. I didn't just experience what was there.
[10:56] although that is important. But I actually heard the word. And I received it. And sometimes the issue is not the preacher. I mean, although I have heard some of my past messages and they go, oh God.
[11:11] Oh God. I'm so sorry. And maybe you've heard a preacher, you've heard a message, and you go, eh, it quite connects. And it happens, you know. Have you ever told a story or told a joke that kind of landed flat?
[11:26] It happens. But sometimes the issue is not the preacher. Sometimes the issue is not worship. Sometimes the issue is not the song that sung. Sometimes the issue is not the church.
[11:41] Sometimes the issue is the soil of the heart. Sometimes the issue is the heart, the ground, the soil of my heart. Sometimes, probably most times, that is the real issue.
[11:54] God, what soil am I? Where am I? Let's be honest. Let's be honest. Can we be honest? We don't just get...
[12:09] Sometimes it wasn't just, you know, not what I needed or maybe we might say those things and it wasn't for me. But maybe sometimes we were just distracted.
[12:24] Hello, somebody. Maybe sometimes we were just distracted. And I genuinely mean that. I mean, seriously. Sometimes we're distracted in church. Sometimes we're distracted in church.
[12:38] We're on the phone. We're talking. We're wrestling with papers or we're doing something other than hearing the word of God preached to try and receive something.
[12:50] You think that's, you know, well, I'll do that for another time. But it is important. We can get distracted in church.
[13:01] We can. But here's the other thing. You can be the distraction too sometimes. You can talk to the sister or you can talk to your neighbor or you can talk to that new convert that's here and distract them from what God is willing to do in their life.
[13:16] Maybe at that moment God speaks the word to them and he tried talking to them and they miss it. This is just really practical. This is really simple. But this is just what's decent and what's in order.
[13:29] Amen? And if you've got a problem with that, I mean, maybe you're the issue. But this is the truth. Somebody's scrolling the screen, brightness set to, nuclear.
[13:41] Somebody's rattling a cough drop. Hello, somebody. That's me. Like they're opening a bag of chips. Yeah, I know. I know. I'm going to have surgery one day.
[13:52] Trust me. But God is trying to talk to us. And sometimes life or people kind of distract us from that moment. But Jesus, here right now, I'm just going to say it.
[14:04] God is talking to us about our dirt. God very plainly, let me just tell everyone, under the sound of my voice, everybody in this place, that's not even looking at me.
[14:16] God's talking about our dirt. God's talking about the soil of our hearts. Because he wants us all to bear fruit. He wants us all to grow, thrive, have revival.
[14:31] But that's the story we just read. And that's the story that we're going to use today to help us understand how I can go from whatever dirt I am to become that good, productive, fruitful soil of my life and for the kingdom of God.
[14:47] Well, let's step into this scene. Let's walk to the shoreline, as it were, and to listen the way they did, kind of what was going on in their situation.
[14:58] Amen. Let's go back to Mark 4, verse 1. And it began again to teach by the seaside.
[15:20] And there was gathered unto him a great multitude, and that he entered into a ship, and sat at the sea, and the whole multitude was by the sea of the land.
[15:30] And he's at the sea of Galilee, this huge lake of fresh water. And everyone is crowding around him where it's so much, he's being thrown, that he's got to step back into a boat and cast away just a little bit.
[15:47] And it's smart because what happens is the water becomes this projection to this crowd of people, this crowd of people who are trying to hear the Lord's words.
[16:00] people who are going to hear the people who are going to hear the people who are going to hear And he said, hearken, a sower. And possibly there may have been a sower at that time somewhere working.
[16:15] And the sower with this bag of seeds is tossing in this rhythmic motion these seeds this way and that way all over the ground, not having a care, not saying a care, but just whatever ground it happens to land on, he's casting this seed.
[16:39] And he said, while this was happening, he pointed this out, he said, hey, it's going to fall by the wayside. These pathways, these pathways that are walked on, hard on their hard surface, and they're falling on the ground, they're falling, and they're out there, and the fowls, a bird just comes up and just snatches it up.
[17:03] And he goes on to talk about stony ground. You know, an inch of maybe good soil, but really then there's some stony ground underneath that soil, so when it germinates, it doesn't quite reach far enough in the root.
[17:21] Some fell among thorns, and those thorny plants, those weeds, they took nutrients away from that seed. So where it's choked out and it yields no fruit, but then he talked about the good ground, this ground that had been tilled, this ground that was good and it worked, and it bore really good fruit.
[17:43] And now, listen, the whole crowd, I want you to picture this, okay? This whole crowd, this whole crowd is like nodding, okay? is nodding. Even the disciples, even Peter, even John, even Matthew, okay?
[18:01] The tax collector, he's looking at, he's writing them his notes, and as Jesus is talking about what kind of fruit it's going to bear, what's going to bear, that's the increase that it's going to bear, some 60, some 30, some 100, Matthew's, you know, he's like, oh wow, that's pretty good return right there, that's pretty good ROI.
[18:23] And everyone's hearing, and everyone's nodding their head, okay, that's good, that's great. And everyone leaves. Jesus says, the last thing he says, hey, everyone has ears to hear, let them hear.
[18:37] And then they all just take off. And the scripture says in verse 10, and when he was alone, they sat there, they that were there with him, with the twelve, asked of him the parable.
[18:56] So basically they were like, hey Lord, I know we were all nodding in agreement, like we understood what was going on, but can you just break it down just a little bit?
[19:09] Can you break it down to us just a little bit? Because you know what, we don't want to look foolish, so we were nodding with you, like we agree. So the Lord begins to break it down.
[19:23] He tells them, he says this, unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables, that seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them.
[19:47] And he said unto them, know ye not this parable? How then? You don't get this parable? This parable is key to understand all the other parables. The Lord says in verse 13, how then will you know all parables?
[20:07] This parable is key, because it speaks of the word, it speaks of the sower, and it speaks of the soil, the heart. He says, he's alluding to, he's going to break it down, because he says if your heart can't receive this parable, you can't understand this, you're not going to be able to receive and understand all those other parables that are coming.
[20:35] Because this parable explains why some people grow and others don't. This parable explains why some people grow and thrive and bear fruit in their lives, and why some others do not.
[20:51] Even when they hear the same word. Think about it, you have two people in the same church service, and you have one person that hears the word and says, yes Lord, I'm going to apply it to my life.
[21:04] I'm going to receive it. And then you have the same person in the same service, they receive the word, and then when trials come or something happens, they fall away.
[21:20] So Jesus was very intentional. It's obvious that he's saying some people grow and others don't. Even when they hear the same word because soils or the dirt doesn't lie.
[21:32] Amen. So verse 14, he says, the sower soweth the word. The seed is good, the sower is good, the word is powerful, but the question is never the seed, the question is always the soil.
[21:51] The question is always the soil because here's the truth, dirt don't lie. Your soil will reveal your soul.
[22:02] It reveals your heart, your intentions, your mindset when it comes to the word of God. and biblical truths. Verse 15, and there are they by the wayside.
[22:21] So he establishes, okay, there's the sower, we have the sower, and then we have the seed, which is the word, okay? So here we have, we establish that, okay? Verse 15, and these are they by the wayside, where the word is sown, but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in their heart.
[22:51] He said, these are they, this wayside, these pathways, that these are they that were by the wayside, where the word is sown, but when they heard the word, Satan cometh immediately.
[23:05] I'm going to say Satan. This is the real deal. This is not spooky, you know, goblins and Halloween thing.
[23:16] This is a real enemy of our soul. This is a real enemy that does not want any of us to grow. Does not want any of us to have revival. That doesn't want any of us to grow spiritually.
[23:29] He does not want to have the word germinate or take root in our hearts for us to bear fruit. We have to understand that this morning. That the enemy of our soul is just that, the enemy of our soul.
[23:43] And he will lie on you, he will whisper in your ear and say you're not worth it, you're not able, you're not smart, you can't grow, and will immediately snatch that word out of your heart.
[23:59] Heart's soil was walked on soil. In those days, that wayside were those pathways, and literally, you have your house, and people would walk through your yard, and there would be walkways.
[24:15] How would you feel if someone just came walking in your yard for just no reason? Just a shorter pathway to your other side. Some of you have yards, some of you don't, but just imagine if you had a really nice yard, a big yard, and somebody just walked right through it.
[24:29] They're like, what are you doing? There's a sidewalk right there. Yeah, but it's faster to go through your yard. And if they kept doing that over and over, soon there would be a pathway worn through your yard, and the dirt would be hard, compacted.
[24:47] And that's the thing about our hearts. And then the natural is that hurt can harden our hearts. Can it? Amen? Disappointments can harden our hearts.
[25:01] Offenses can harden our hearts. Come on. Trauma can harden our hearts. Family, relationships, marriages, disappointments, firings, all these things can harden our hearts.
[25:17] to the point to where we don't even believe that God can fix us, that God can help us, or God can move on us, and break up that hard ground of our hearts.
[25:33] But then there are also just people that have hard hearts, and it's like when the word comes, it's like, no, I'm good. Oh, live holy?
[25:44] No, I'm all right. I love my brother. Is that okay? No, I'm good. I'm all right. Forgive my mom? No, I'm comfortable right here.
[26:05] Forgive my real brother, my flesh and blood? No, you don't know what he did to me. My sister? Oh, man, let me tell you. Oh, no, Lord.
[26:16] That's as far as I go. I'm here. I'm here. But no, I'm not going to go there. But hardness, here's the thing about hardness. It doesn't protect you.
[26:27] It prevents you from receiving. Hardness does not protect you. This does not protect you. But it stops us from being able to receive that healing.
[26:40] It stops us from being able to receive that forgiveness. It stops us from being able to receive that goodness of God that he wants to shed on your heart. Amen. That's what hardness does.
[26:53] You hear it, but it never enters in. You hear it, but you reject it. You hear it, but it doesn't penetrate. And that's when Satan comes in like a flood.
[27:07] Satan says, okay, they've rejected it. Now it's my turn. Now it's my opportunity. And they begin to speak lies into your ears, whisper lies into your life.
[27:18] And you begin to hear that, and you begin to believe it, and you begin to make it this whole story in your head. Because the enemy sees that opportunity and he grasps it and he says, yes, they are mine.
[27:31] They are not going to go back. They are not going to go back to that church. They're not going to go back to that place of forgiveness. I really, I pray that God would help us to really understand that, that this is a real thing.
[27:46] That the devil really does this. This is the enemy's plan. He wants to stop you from serving God. He wants to stop you from loving your family.
[27:59] He wants to stop you from having revival in your family, in your life. He does. He wants to destroy you. I wish I could convey for, he wants to destroy you.
[28:12] The enemy comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy you. The Lord said it himself. That's what he wants to do with our lives.
[28:27] And by us being hard-hearted and the word being rejected and falling to the ground, he's going to come in, swoop it up, and replace what should have been the word in our hearts that begins to germinate and bear fruit.
[28:46] He'll begin to put lies in your mind and lies in your heart. Come on. And I think someone here this morning knows what I'm talking about.
[28:59] Knows exactly what I'm saying. Is that you've heard lies after lies after lies. You've heard rumor after rumor after rumor.
[29:09] You've heard negative after negative after negative. Hallelujah. But this is your morning. This is your morning. Hallelujah. To no longer be that hard ground. Amen.
[29:20] But to be that ground that's broken up and says, Lord, you know what? I'm sick and tired of that. I'm sick and tired of being the enemy's boxing pad.
[29:31] God, I'm sick and tired of being that for the enemy. God, I want to receive your word with gladness and bear fruit in my life. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
[29:45] Because he doesn't steal. I know I'm taking my time on this one, but this is important. Because it deals with the mental. It deals with what's up here. The enemy's not throwing a demon at you. He's not throwing physical things at you.
[29:56] He's not with a Nerf gun trying to get you or Nerf arrows. He's trying to get you with a thought. Not you.
[30:08] You'll never change. Don't respond. Don't let him look at you. You look so ridiculous. You look so silly. Why are you doing those things? Why are you worshiping like that?
[30:20] Why are you praising God like that? Why are you praying? He doesn't hear you. You know what you did last night. You've tried before. This is what the enemy is trying to do to all of us.
[30:36] Hallelujah. Hard hearts are like, hard hearts, you know, if you're a grandparent or you're a parent, you know, you understand what I'm talking about.
[30:48] You know, it's like a toddler that doesn't want to eat their food. You go, come on, let's go. And they go, come on, come on.
[31:01] And you got to do the airplane. Here comes the airplane coming in for the landing. But you try and feed them, but their lips are clamped shut.
[31:17] And maybe the airplane doesn't work. God's got better things for us. Amen? He's got better things for you.
[31:32] Here's what we need to admit. Lord, I need you to soften this heart of mine. Lord, I need you to soften this heart of mine. Break this soil, hard soil, so my heart can be open.
[31:42] Then he talked about the stony ground. He said, and these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground, who when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness and have no root in themselves.
[31:59] And so endure but for a time afterward, when an affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.
[32:13] And these are likewise, they which are sown on stony ground. They receive the word with gladness, immediately.
[32:26] But they have no root, they have no depth in themselves. And so they endure but for a time. So it's a fast sprouting. It comes up quick.
[32:40] Because it lacks depth, because of the stones, it withers away. And these are the people who get excited quickly. But they fade quickly.
[32:51] I'm all in. Whatever you need, I'm here for you. I want to do this. And they have lots of emotion.
[33:03] Maybe they're the loudest ones in the church. But, you know, emotion and volume does not equal depth. Amen?
[33:15] Emotion and volume does not equal depth. Although we should, I think, you know, I love praising God. I love shouting. And I love lifting my voice to give Him praise, because He's been so good to me and where I've come from.
[33:27] But the emotion and the volume doesn't always correlate or equal the depth of the word in our hearts. We love shouting. We love running.
[33:38] Oh, I don't see too much of that anymore. We love worship. Maybe some of us can't. Or I'll fall on the floor and die. But we're apostolic.
[33:51] We're expressive. That's who we are. But loudness does not always equal maturity. Come on, somebody. Because sometimes, you know, the loudness, you know, speaks to the wounds of someone's life.
[34:08] Speaks to what's really on the inside. And they really need Jesus. Some shout out of overflow. Some shout from emptiness. Some shout just to survive the week.
[34:22] And hey, wherever that lands for you, you know, we should just pray for one another. Okay? But emotion is beautiful. And I'm not trying to squash emotion. But emotion is not a root system.
[34:35] Emotion is not what's going to keep you stable and keep you grounded in the kingdom of God. I'm telling you, it's not going to do it. The stony ground, he says, you know, it comes up quick, but it dies fast.
[34:49] It's because there's no depth to it. Roots, I'm just going to say this, roots grow in private, not in public.
[35:02] Roots grow in the private prayer life. The private devotion of our lives. Roots grow deep when we're in prayer with the Lord. Roots grow strong and deep when we're in devotion, when nobody's watching, no one's keeping count of us.
[35:19] Amen. That is where true fruitfulness comes from and depth comes from. That is the true root system. Amen. And when we are abiding in him, hallelujah, that's where true growth and true revival and true fruitfulness does come from as we're abiding in him and we're secretly praying to him and we're secretly reading the word to ourselves from him.
[35:46] Hallelujah. Praise God. Daily prayer, consistency, obedience, and faithfulness. These are part of the root system.
[35:59] Shallow doesn't mean shame, but I'm going to tell you something. It does mean opportunity. And Jesus pointed this out. Jesus talked about the shallowness of some of these soils.
[36:12] Because the soil don't lie. The dirt don't lie. Amen. Come on, somebody. God is inviting us to go deeper.
[36:25] I'm just going to stop right here and say this. I've been feeling this and I think we all kind of sense it. God is asking or he's wanting us all to go deeper in him.
[36:38] He wants us all to go deeper in knowing God. Superficial, shallow, no depth. No, no, no. That's not what he's calling us to.
[36:49] He's calling us to a deeper knowledge, a deeper relationship with him. So when persecution does come for our faith, and it will, when hard times do come in our lives, and they will, when struggling times do come into our lives, and they will, amen.
[37:12] We can stand strong and firm in God because our roots go deep and wide. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Our roots grow deep in our knowledge of him, and our roots grow wide in our relationship with one another.
[37:31] Amen. Hallelujah. That's good. Hallelujah. We need to grow deeper in our knowledge, and we need to go wider in our relationship with one another. So this whole silo and doing it ourselves and lone ranger mentality, that's got to go.
[37:49] That's got to go. We need one another. Praise God. We need each other. We need to call one another and hang out with one and pray for one another. Amen.
[38:01] That's what we do, events like Friendsgiving. Invite someone over. Come on. Come with me. Get connected. God is inviting you and I to go deeper.
[38:15] Verse 18 and 19, he says, And these are they which are sown among thorns, such as hear the word. They hear the word.
[38:26] They hear the word. And the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the lust of other things entering in.
[38:38] Choke the word. Choke it. Choke. And he's not. And he becomes unfruitful. Picture that.
[38:51] Picture that. And these are they which are sown among thorns, the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things entering in.
[39:03] Choke. Choke. They wrap their hands around the throat of the word and of your spiritual depth.
[39:16] And the deceitfulness of riches and cares of this world. Grab that word and that fruitfulness by the neck and choke it out.
[39:29] And just a minute. Rear naked choke. And chokes it out. He gives it an MMA triangle and chokes it out. This soil loves the Lord.
[39:47] It loves Jesus. It loves the church. But it has those spaces. Not sinful soil, I guess, but maybe overcrowded soil.
[39:59] It's not a time issue. It's more of a time, I don't want to say a time issue, but more of a priority issue.
[40:11] It's this soil has a problem. A priority for the things of God. A priority for the things that are right and that will help you grow. That will overcrowd this seed and begin to choke it out.
[40:28] Keep it from getting its nutrients. Keep it from getting its nutrients and what's needed for it to grow and to become fruitful and expand. That could be money.
[40:41] Money. Entertainment. Entertainment. And my wallet thudded pretty light because there's not a whole lot in there.
[40:56] If I grab some of your wallets, I put it, they go thud. Some of y'all are ballers. I mean, come on.
[41:08] Entertainment. Riches. The latest show on Netflix or on Prime. Choke out the word.
[41:21] You're going to think it chokes the word of God in your life and chokes it out. It steals the nutrients, the vitality of the word of God of growing in your life.
[41:36] And Jesus names these three clusters. He's thinking the worries, the things that we allow to take up our mind space, our heart space. Come on, somebody.
[41:49] Anybody got worries? Jesus is talking about them. Chasing security. Insecurity. Distraction. Schedule. Exhaustion. The word doesn't die.
[42:00] It suffocates. Slowly, quietly, and gradually, the word of God is choked out of your life. I'm going to hit this again, but even church distractions can choke the word in your life.
[42:16] Because God can be speaking to us right now. Pastor, as he was talking about brethren and loving one another. And we were doing something else. You know, maybe that's the word you need to hear.
[42:28] And maybe this is the word you need to hear right now. Don't allow distractions or people to choke out the word in your life. The word is. The thorns can be pulled.
[42:45] The weeds can be taken out. Margins can be created. And your heart can't breathe. It can see. There is hope for all of us. Because God is able to heal us.
[42:56] God is able to help us. God is able to restore us. But there is a responsibility that I have to take out those distractions and those things that might take up my mind and my heart.
[43:10] But then Jesus talks about the good ground. The honest ground. Verse 20. And these are they which are sown on good ground.
[43:23] So just hear the word and receive it. But bring forth and bring forth fruit. Some 30 fold. Some 60. Some 100. And the hearers of that day, you know, they probably were like, what?
[43:39] Because that was unheard of. I read a few commentaries on that. And that was that kind of ROI or that kind of fruitfulness was unheard of. And so when they, when he spoke this, because they didn't understand, they all could relate to what he was talking about.
[43:57] Here in our 21st century mind, it's kind of hard. But they could totally understand. They could see the sower in the field going back and forth with the seed. Knowing what it looks like.
[44:08] Yeah. People walking in the pathways and making hard work. Yeah. I walked through George's yard the other day. But he's saying this good ground.
[44:22] This good ground. So just hear the word and they receive it. Bring forth fruit. Because dirt don't lie.
[44:34] Your dirt don't lie. Hey, my dirt don't lie. Right? Right? Turn to the neighbor and say, my dirt don't lie.
[44:50] We're not going to be accusatory. Yeah. My dirt don't lie. But the good soil, you know, it's not perfect. It's mixed in all those other, you know, grounds around them.
[45:04] Because that's why the sower throws the seed the way it does. Because when we think of soil or planting, we think of all the beautiful, you know, cabbage and all the tomato fields and all the, we think of Watsonville.
[45:18] We think over here, Hollister. All those fields look so nice. All those crops. But that's not how it was. There was some stony, some wayside. There was some thorny.
[45:29] And there was some good ground. All kind of mixed up together. And so he was able to throw the ground or the seed. And that good soil, though it wasn't perfect, it was on a soil.
[45:46] It's open. Hello, somebody. It's open. It's surrendered. And it's willing. But here's the thing. Good soil must be worked.
[45:58] You break it up. You clear it out. You dig it. You turn it. Here's what I want us to understand. One of the things is that honesty, honesty creates harvest.
[46:13] Honesty with ourselves, honesty about our soil is going to create a harvest in your life and in my life. Come on, somebody. Honesty with myself, honesty with yourself is going to create a harvest in your life.
[46:27] Because, God, what soil am I? Because here's the deal. God will not heal. Ready? For what you hide.
[46:43] God will not heal what you hide. I'm going to heal what I'm. I'm sorry, I'm distracting you all. I'm just mine. That's good, though.
[47:02] That's so true. God will not heal what we hide or what we keep to ourselves. And what we protect. God, no, no, Lord, not that part.
[47:15] No, Lord, not that part. God, that part hurts too much, Lord. Too much work to be done on that. God, too much for me to give up. Too much for me to deal with. Too much emotion for that, God.
[47:27] Too much. God, no, you know what? No, God. Not today. But when? When? You know who we should be telling not today?
[47:44] When they try to whisper into our lives? Can you guess? The devil. The enemy. When he swoops in to try and steal the word and give us hopelessness and speak ill into our lives and pour into our lives, you know what we should say?
[48:03] Not today, devil. Not today. Not today. Not tomorrow. But for sure not today. And we can throw a little sass in there, too.
[48:14] A little attitude. Not today. Because the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. But they are mighty.
[48:26] Through God. Amen. Hallelujah. To the pulling down of strongholds. The casting down of imaginations. Hallelujah. We need to say, not today, devil.
[48:42] But in the name of Jesus, I take those ungodly thoughts, those unproductive thoughts, those ugly thoughts, those thoughts that will try and get me to be depressed and negative, I take those thoughts into captivity and I put them into submission unto Jesus Christ.
[49:01] I put them at his feet. God, replace those thoughts with your righteousness. That's what we need to be saved. God, I put them in the name of Jesus Christ.
[49:11] That's what we need to be saved. That's what we need to be saved. So God won't heal what we hide, but fruit does follow surrender, not performance. You hear that?
[49:22] Hey, God won't heal what we hide, but fruit will follow our surrender. It will follow our submission. It will follow to our heart that says, yes, Lord, right here.
[49:39] Oh, God, help us. I want to tell someone this, this morning. No matter where you are, because right now you're probably trying to identify, this is funny, you're trying to identify your neighbor's soil.
[49:53] Maybe, maybe out or down. Maybe you're trying to identify your kid's soil. You're trying to identify someone's soil. But if you are trying to identify your own soil, just think about it for a minute.
[50:07] Am I caught up in the cares of life? Am I caught up seeking after riches? Am I caught up, am I caught up in allowing the devil to take the seed in my life?
[50:19] Am I, is my hard heart? Is my heart hard? We have to be really honest with ourselves about what soil we are. But any soil, whatever soil you've identified, whatever soil you think you are right now at this moment, even now, God can heal.
[50:41] Amen? God can do something with it. God can work it. God can help you work it, break it up. Amen? So let's just talk, let's just talk real right now.
[50:55] What soil am I? What soil are you? Not who you used to be, not who you want to be, but what are you right now, today?
[51:08] What are you right now? What soil are you? What soil are you giving God? Because here is the honest truth. Dirt don't lie.
[51:21] Tell your neighbor, say dirt don't lie. Oh, come on, say it with some dirt, don't lie. That's right. So I'm going to challenge us this morning.
[51:37] Take a few minutes out of your morning. Take a few minutes and ask God, Lord, what soil am I? God, what made me this soil?
[51:52] What made me, what events of my life, what made me this way? What made me so hard? What made me so stony? What made me so thorny? God, what made me this way?
[52:03] And then God, where are you working? Because let's be real. If you can scroll TikTok for 10 minutes, come on, you can check on your dirt for 10 minutes.
[52:19] You can check on your soil for 10 minutes. If you can check, hey, I got my sleeper off on my phone, I check my fantasy football. If I can check that for 10 minutes, I can check my heart for 10 minutes, check my dirt, amen, or Instagram or whatever your, your choice, your MySpace.
[52:39] You say MySpace? I don't think that exists anymore, sister. Praise God. You're the only person that has my, well, we're going to keep this for Sheila, so.
[52:55] Second thing this week, pull out a thorn. Pull a thorn in your life. Start clearing the way. Start with one. Whatever that might be.
[53:09] Don't try and clear the whole field at one time, but start clearing that dirt of your heart one thorn at a time, one stone at a time. Hallelujah.
[53:20] If it's worry, pray about that worry. If it's distractions, pray about those distractions. If it's busyness, pray about those, that, that busyness in your life.
[53:33] If it's security, and I, I know, security's a big deal for, for, for a lot of people. Feeling financially secure. Feeling emotionally secure.
[53:45] But I'm going to tell us something. If, if security and fear is a problem, yes, we need to pray, but I'm going to challenge you to, to do one act of generosity.
[54:00] One act of generosity to help somebody. But clear, everyone say, clear one inch. Clear one inch at a time. That's all it takes. One at a time. And before you know it, the whole field of your heart is going to be clear.
[54:13] And it's going to be that good ground. You know, as our church, as a church, we need to decide. There's no more, there's not going to be any more hardness in this church.
[54:27] No hard hearts. No more shallowness in this church. No more crowdedness in this church. We want, we want honest soil in this church.
[54:38] We want a church that bears fruit. That soil that can receive the word. can preach with the preacher. That can teach Bible studies and teach the word and bears the fruit.
[54:50] Some 30, 60, and 100. Open soil that's fruit bearing soil because God is the sower. God is sowing.
[55:01] And God is speaking to us right now. And God is watering our hearts here this morning. but we must be open to God's call in our lives.
[55:16] Amen. Let's all stand. Amen. . Before we, before these altars open, I want to read a verse.
[55:47] . Let me read you something.
[56:03] Sow to yourselves in righteousness. Reap in mercy. Break up your fallow ground.
[56:14] For it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousness upon you. You know what fellow ground is?
[56:29] You know? Fellow ground is that ground that used to be soft but, you know, hasn't been touched in a while. Hasn't been touched in a long time.
[56:40] And it's become hard. Not able to bear food.
[56:51] Not able to take sin. Not able to be useful. And so is the prophet Hosea in the scripture. Is he speaking to some random sinner?
[57:06] Is he speaking to people's vision? People who knew God. People who worshipped him and sacrificed him at festivals.
[57:18] He's speaking to God. He's saying, He drifted. He'd forgotten. He'd moved away. And your ground has become hard.
[57:30] And in this verse, he's saying, but break it open. Till it.
[57:42] Take a plow. Take a tool and break that ground again. He's saying, break it open.
[57:57] Seek him again. Open that place. Because here's the promise. Here's the promise. Is that when they break that ground. That hard ground.
[58:10] That fallow ground. He says, rain always rise. In open soil. In open soil.
[58:20] In open soil. If that soil is open. If that soil is good again. He says, I will rain upon it.
[58:32] I will rain upon that soil. Upon that ground. Someone asked someone here this morning.
[58:45] What soil are you? If we're really honest with ourselves this morning. What dirt are you to do? God is ready to soften.
[59:09] That soil in your life. To deepen you. To clear you. To water you. But here's the thing. We gotta come honestly. And we gotta come humbly.
[59:24] And we gotta come expecting. Amen. Hey, the sower is here. The sower is here. Hallelujah.
[59:37] And he loves you. He loves you. Hallelujah. And I wanna tell you something.
[59:49] The rain. The spawn. Hallelujah. The rain is falling.
[60:10] Hallelujah. Come on, that's it. Let's pray. Come on, that's it. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
[60:23] Hallelujah, Jesus. I praise you, Lord. Hallelujah. Let's not close our eyes and bow our heads for a minute.
[60:47] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hey, if you're ready to come to this altar, I wanna invite you. I wanna invite you to come to this altar. And if you can allow God to work on that ground of yours, that hard of yours.
[61:15] Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Come on. What dirt are you? Hallelujah. Are you that wayside? Hard ground? That rejects the word?
[61:27] Are you that stony ground? That has no depth? Are you that thorny ground that allows the cares of this life to choke out the word?
[61:39] do you do? hallelujah come on that's it that's it there's some honest people coming forward I want us to pray right now Father in the name of Jesus God we thank you God through this opportunity Lord to heal with our hearts to deal with whatever ground we happen to be God God I recognize I'm not what I used to be but God I'm not what I should be in you God I want to have the heart that's good the heart that bears fruit God I want to go deeper I want to know you in a better way God I want to know you in a deeper way Lord God I got a love
[62:40] Thank you.