Good morning. My name is Matthew Capone, and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church,
and it's my joy to bring God's Word to you today. A special welcome if you're new or visiting with us.
We're glad that you're here, and we're glad that you're here not because we are trying to fill seats,
but because we're following Jesus together as one community.
And as we follow Jesus together, we become convinced that there's no one so good, they don't need God's grace,
and no one so bad that they can't have it, which is why we come back week after week to hear what God has to say to us in His Word,
because we believe that God has something to say to everyone.
We're continuing our series in the Gospel of Mark.
You'll remember that the Gospels tell the story of Jesus in His life and His death and His resurrection.
We're shifting our focus a little bit. We left Mark chapter 3 behind last week,
and this morning we're beginning Mark chapter 4, where Jesus leaves His healing,
and we begin to see specifically Him teaching about the kingdom of God.
This is the section in Mark with a great focus on Jesus' parables.
Now, if you remember last week, we saw this family intervention that happened with Jesus.
His family came, and they were calling Him away from His ministry.
They believed that He was perhaps harming Himself in the midst of it,
that things had gotten out of control, and it was time for them to intervene.
Jesus, in that passage, clarified for them and for us His priorities,
that His family is important, they're just not the most important.
That mission, His purpose, the reason that He was sent, comes before everything else.
It's His keystone commitment, or His primary commitment,
that He filters all His other commitments through.
This week, we're going to continue to explore Jesus' call, His words to follow me.
It's the words He spoke to Simon and Andrew when He called them in chapter 1.
It's the same thing He said to Levi in chapter 2.
And as we look at that call, both for the world and for ourselves,
this story, this parable, is going to help us answer a couple questions.
First, what is it that keeps people from answering Jesus' call?
If Jesus is so universally recognized as a good teacher,
if so many people believe that,
why do so few people actually follow His teaching?
How can someone be ambivalent towards such a polarizing and critical figure
in the history of the world?
So much so that the dating of world history hinges around the time of Jesus' birth and His life.
Yes, Jesus' impact is great.
Why is it not even greater?
Why is it not even more than it is?
Now, the other question is similar but more personal.
Not just how we understand the world, but what about us?
What keeps us from following Jesus?
What pulls us away from Him?
If Jesus, as we talked about last week,
is the horizon line that we look towards,
if He is the one that we center our lives around,
how can we make sure that we are pointed and oriented in the right direction?
How can we go the distance?
How do we live lives that are wise and fruitful?
Now, I'm saying basically two things over and over again
that we're going to look at in this passage.
One, we are going to get a mental map, a paradigm,
to understand the world and how it responds to Jesus and His teaching.
And two, we're going to understand what that means for us,
how we can be people who are fruitful rather than barren.
And so it's with those questions,
I'm going to invite you to turn with me to Mark chapter 4.
We're going to be starting at verse 1.
One, you can turn in your worship guide,
you can turn on your phone,
you can turn in your physical Bible.
No matter where you turn, remember that this is God's Word.
God tells us that His Word is more precious than gold,
even the finest gold,
and that it is sweeter than honey,
even honey that comes straight from the honeycomb.
And so that's why we read now, starting at verse 1.
Again, He began to teach beside the sea,
and a very large crowd gathered about Him,
so that 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 His teaching He said to them,
Listen, behold, a sower went out to sow.
And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path,
and the birds came and devoured it.
Verse 5.
Other seeds fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil,
and immediately it sprang up,
since it had no depth of soil.
And when the sun rose, it was scorched,
and since it had no root, it withered away.
Other seed fell among thorns,
and the thorns grew up and choked it,
and it yielded no grain.
And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain,
growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.
And He said,
He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Verse 10.
And when He was alone,
those around Him with the twelve 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,
and may indeed hear but not understand,
lest they should turn and be forgiven.
Verse 13.
And He said to them,
Do you not understand this parable?
How then will you understand all the parables?
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 rocky ground,
the ones who, when they hear the word,
immediately receive it with joy.
And they have no root in themselves,
but endure for a while.
Then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word,
immediately they fall away.
Verse 18.
And others are the ones sown among thorns.
They are those who hear the word,
but the cares of the world,
and the deceitfulness of riches,
and the desires for other things,
enter in and choke the word,
and it proves unfruitful.
But those that were sown on the good soil
are the ones who hear the word,
and accept it,
and bear fruit,
thirtyfold,
and sixtyfold,
and a hundredfold.
I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's word.
Our Father in heaven,
we come to you again,
grateful for your word that you've given to us.
You tell us in your word about those who,
when they heard it,
were struck to the heart.
And we ask for that this morning.
We ask that you would strike us to the heart,
that you would honor your promise,
that we talked about last week in John chapter 14,
that you give your spirit to your people.
We ask for your spirit this morning
to help us understand your word,
that you would use it to encourage us,
you'd use it to challenge us,
you'd use it to bear fruit in our lives,
and most importantly,
that you would use it to exalt Jesus Christ,
that we would see him as more beautiful
and more glorious than anything else.
We ask these things in his mighty name.
Amen.
We have changed scenes since last week.
You'll remember Jesus was teaching in a house.
That's where he had the two circles around him,
the inner circle that was coming to hear him,
and the outer circle of his family
that was coming to drag him away.
And now he's returned again to the sea.
We see here in verse one,
that word again reminding us
that Jesus has been teaching by the sea many times.
The last time we saw him by the sea
was in chapter three, verse seven.
And that was the incident where it seemed like
his very life was in danger,
that people were pressing in on him so hard
that he had to get into a boat to get away from them.
That's the same dynamic we have here.
In verse nine of chapter three,
we were told he got into the boat lest they crush him.
And here we see in verse one,
he got into a boat and sat in it in the sea.
Now he could be getting into this boat for the same reason.
He could be getting in to prevent himself
from being crushed.
That's possible.
There's another likely reason that this is happening,
which is that Jesus is trying to speak to this large crowd.
And so I want you to imagine for a second
that you are in a modern day auditorium.
In fact, in a sense,
we're in something similar to that right now.
Except Jesus had no public announcement system.
Jesus did not have a headpiece like I do.
He had no microphone.
And so instead of the stage,
you have the boat that Jesus is on.
Instead of people sitting out in chairs,
they're probably sitting on a hillside
along the Sea of Galilee lined up in rows.
In fact, we have a reason to believe
that this is what was going on.
If you visit Capernaum today,
you can see the same dynamic by the Sea of Galilee.
So Jesus on the boat in the sea,
the people on the shore,
and he has his natural sound system,
which is the water.
It's just a basic principle
that water carries sound.
And so that's most likely why
Jesus has chosen to deliver his message in this way.
Now that's similar from chapter three.
In chapter three,
we're told there was a great crowd.
Here we're told there is a very large crowd.
In other words,
the pattern of intensification continues.
More and more people are following Jesus.
The pressure is rising.
The interest is growing.
If anything,
Jesus is becoming more and more popular.
It's in that context that we see him here
begin to teach them.
We're told in verse two,
he is teaching them in parables.
In other words,
he is telling them these stories
that help them understand the world
and the way it works.
He's telling them stories here in this chapter
to help them and us understand
how it is that the kingdom of God
actually operates.
And so it's with that,
we're going to jump right into the story itself here,
this parable.
Jesus tells the story in verses three through nine,
and then he provides an interpretation for us
in verses 13 through 20.
And at a big picture level,
there are fundamentally two types of soil.
There is good soil,
and there's bad soil.
And there's varying degrees to how these soils respond.
Some are worse than others of the bad soils.
Some are better than others of the good soils.
What we know here, though,
is this scene begins,
verse three,
is there is a sower that goes out to sow.
And we're told in the interpretation,
verse 14,
that this seed that the sower is giving
is in fact the word of God.
This image of a seed is important for us
because it reminds us
of how potent and powerful the word of God is.
Seeds, you know,
contain their own nourishment,
their own power within them.
They come with all the ingredients needed
except for the soil.
And so from the very beginning,
we're being reminded
of the important question of this passage,
which is if the word of God is so powerful,
if the seed has what it needs in itself,
why are there mixed results?
Why do some people respond powerfully,
others not at all?
It's with that question
that we begin to understand
and see these different types of soil.
First, verse four,
we have the soil that falls along the path.
We're told that the birds come and devour it.
Jesus then explains for us,
verse 15,
what's going on.
When they hear,
Satan immediately comes
and takes away the word that is sown in them.
In other words,
there are this group of people
that when the word of God comes,
it makes absolutely no impact.
They don't even consider it.
It's not something that enters into their mind
and they wrestle with.
It's something that goes in one ear
and out the other.
Their spiritual darkness,
in other words,
is so great,
the distractions are so immediate
that the word doesn't even gain
a hearing for them.
Maybe they ignore it.
Maybe they are hostile to it.
They do not wrestle with it.
Or consider it.
If you were here during our Philippians series,
you know that I am a connoisseur
of fine rain jackets.
And there's a variety of reasons for that,
which I won't go into this morning.
But there are varying qualities of rain jackets
that you can buy,
which are going to serve you
with a variety of performances.
The deeper into the wilderness you are,
the higher the quality of rain jacket you want.
The way you assess whether it's a good rain jacket or not
comes in a variety of ways.
First of all,
you want to know what kind of tape it has.
Because it doesn't matter how good the material is
if the water comes in through the seams.
Right?
So you want your seams taped.
The other question is how effective your hood is.
If your hood is not effective,
it doesn't matter how good the material is,
water is going to come in through the top.
And so what you want is the type of rain jacket
that if someone were to dump a bucket of water
over your head,
you would be untouched.
That's how you know you're dealing
with a high quality product.
Now, of course, you also want breathability.
That probably comes after the other two.
These folks, the hard soil,
spiritually have the best rain jackets possible.
Nothing can touch them.
Everything beads up and rolls off.
They have no space or time
to consider the word of God.
There is nothing that is able to get through.
And so that helps us understand that type of response.
Satan is actually at work,
as Jesus tells us here at verse 15,
pulling away the word
before it even has the chance to make an impact.
This hard soil can't be penetrated by seeds.
That's what happens when it's that packed down.
Jesus then goes on to tell us about soils
that do receive the word,
but only superficially.
And so in verses five and six,
we have the rocky ground.
Verse five, we're told immediately it sprang up.
Verse 16, these people receive God's word
with incredible joy for a time.
Then we see verse six,
the sun comes out.
It was scorched.
Since it had no root, it withered away.
Verse 17 clarifies this even more.
They had no root in themselves.
And so they fall away.
And he tells us here,
in verse 17,
that it's because of tribulation or persecution
that arises on account of the word.
In other words,
these folks are excited about the word of God
until it stops being comfortable.
And the moment it stops being comfortable,
they are gone.
What's missing here?
Verse 16 tells us they received it with joy.
What did they not receive it with?
They did not receive it with faith or repentance.
In other words,
they loved the sound of the gospel.
It seemed like this beautiful thing.
The idea of forgiveness was attractive.
And they did not grasp the fact
that they were the ones who needed to be forgiven.
They did not come face to face
with the reality of their own sin.
They did not realize
that they could not stand
before a holy God by themselves.
And so they never received
and grasped the gospel for themselves.
They were there for a moment.
They were not there forever.
There was something that was appealing to them.
It did not strike to the core of their hearts.
Now, if you're wondering
or thinking about Christianity,
if you don't consider yourself a Christian,
one thing I want to call your attention to
in our worship guide is page 10,
which talks about this dynamic
of what it means to actually be someone
who has been penetrated to the heart
by the word of God.
And you'll see there's two bolded sections here
near the middle bottom.
One is repent.
The other is believe in the gospel.
You can hear many things about Christianity.
You can like many things about Christianity.
You can admire Jesus.
And if you have not repented from the heart,
you will not last.
Verse 17,
they have no root in themselves.
When the going gets hard,
they leave.
It is not a keystone commitment for them
as we talked about last week.
It is a secondary commitment.
Church is extremely useful.
It is useful to help them meet
all sorts of other goals.
They thought it was a great place
to meet good conservative people.
And in a sense, it was.
They thought it was a great place
to meet dating prospects.
And in a sense, it was.
They thought it was a good place
to make business contacts.
And in a sense, it was.
They thought it was a good place
for the lonely.
And in a sense, it was.
They thought it was a good place
to raise their children to have morals.
And in a sense, it was.
They thought it was a good place
to have importance and power and identity.
They weren't getting the respect
that they wanted at work or at home.
And suddenly they realized that if they came to church
and they memorized the right set of facts
and knew the right things to say,
they could be someone of power and influence.
And it worked for a time.
But while they were there meeting business contacts
and dating prospects and good conservative people,
they never met Jesus.
They were there for the wrong reasons.
Again, verse 17, they have no root in themselves.
Maybe this is someone whose family determines their faith
and it never became their faith.
Tribulation and suffering come and they realize
this is not for me.
This is not what I signed up for.
In fact, that clarifies things for us.
Why would you not stand in persecution?
Well, because you believe this world
is the ultimate reality, the ultimate good.
You're willing to endure as long as the church
helps you accomplish other goals.
And you have to believe in another world
to be willing to suffer in this one.
You have to believe in another world
to be willing to suffer in this one.
By the way, Jesus is calling his shot when he says this.
He's reminding us that you will suffer in this life
if you're a Christian.
You will suffer in this life if you're a Christian.
Paul tells us, 2 Timothy 3,
Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus
will be persecuted.
Notice what he doesn't say.
He doesn't say might be persecuted.
He doesn't say could face persecution
if they live in the wrong area.
No, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life
in Jesus Christ will be persecuted.
Those of you who were here for our first Peter series,
remember we talked about the fact that the church,
as it suffered under communism,
faced a variety of persecutions,
one of which was that Christians faced
limited career and education prospects.
I guarantee you that that tribulation
and that suffering caused some to realize
that Christianity was not for them.
They had no root in themselves.
If this world is your ultimate horizon line,
if it is what you fix your eyes on more than anything else,
that will never make sense.
And so that's the soil that falls on rocky ground.
Then we have our soil, verse 7, that falls on thorns.
The thorns grew up and choked it,
and it yielded no grain.
And Jesus tells us in verse 19 what's going on.
The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches
and the desires for other things
enter in and choke the word,
and it proves unfaithful.
For this individual, these individuals,
they are interested in Christianity.
It's just a low priority.
It is one of many priorities that needs to be juggled.
They'll be there as long as there isn't a better offer.
And so they come and go,
depending on what's going on in their lives and the world.
This is the difference between the rocky soil and the thorny soil.
The rocky soil leaves as soon as it stops being comfortable.
They can't handle tribulation or persecution.
The thorny soil leaves as soon as Christianity does not serve their agenda.
Doesn't have to be suffering or tribulation.
It's just there's something more important,
and Jesus is not going to help them get there.
This is the opposite of what the wise person does
that we talked about last week.
This individual prioritizes what's most important for them,
and then later they figure out if there's anything left over for God.
Houses, jobs, families, hobbies, recreation,
all are a higher priority.
And so this is the person who says,
I'm just too busy right now.
We had a lot going on.
I met a young man when I was a freshman in college.
He was a sophomore ahead of me,
and he was very eager for Christianity.
He'd even sort of mapped out which of the Presbyterian churches
were the more traditional ones than others.
He invited us, freshmen who had no cars,
to go with him because he wanted us to try out the church
that wasn't quite as cool but maybe was a little bit more solid.
He seemed firm in his faith.
Then he got on the fast track for a major airline,
doing internships during the summer,
and he realized which side his bread was buttered on.
And his life radically changed.
His priorities radically changed.
He dropped his Christian fellowship.
He dropped his church attendance.
He joined some other groups on campus
that would help him reach his career goals.
I looked him up as I was preparing this,
and he is still in the airline industry
as a high flyer, pun intended.
Christianity was there
until there was something that was more important.
It wasn't that there was persecution.
There was just a better offer.
Christianity was not delivering the good life for him.
It's sort of like the theologian Selena Gomez tells us,
the heart wants what it wants.
And for him, there was something he wanted more than that.
Now, these bad soils are all in one category.
For us, the point is this.
There are many things vying and competing
for our attention and our affection.
We are tempted by many priorities and many loves.
It is possible to miss the most important
and beautiful things that are right ahead of us.
As people who follow after Jesus,
the goal as we read this
is that we would be alert to the way
that our enemy works in the world.
We would remember 1 Peter 5,
We would remember 2 Corinthians 2,
warning us not to be outwitted by Satan
for we are not ignorant of his designs.
There is in this passage
a call for us to self-examination.
What is your ultimate horizon line,
truth, reality, experience, good, future?
What is it that you fix your eyes on
more than anything else?
What is it that you believe the good life is?
Another way of asking it is this.
Why are you here?
Why did you get up and come to this church this morning?
Did you come here for Jesus?
It is dangerous to have Christianity
as a secondary commitment
and not a keystone commitment.
If that is you, beware.
Repent.
Turn back now
before it is too late.
There is something greater than this world.
There is a better and more important horizon line.
There is something that can deliver
what others can only promise.
If you are or have been
at some point
in the dating world,
you know there are a variety of characters
that you meet.
One of the characters that you meet
is the player.
What does the player do?
The player knows how to entice
and arouse and flirt.
Right?
And the longer you are with the player,
the quicker,
eventually you realize
it is all a house of cards.
The player can arouse and entice.
The player cannot fulfill.
Brothers and sisters,
this world is a player.
The deceitfulness of riches is real.
This world promises you
all sorts of things
that it will not
and cannot make good on.
It can entice you.
It cannot fulfill you.
It will pull you in,
chew you up,
and spit you out.
Players are not interested in you.
They are interested in trophies
to put on the shelf.
That is the world that we live in.
There are many other voices
calling for our attention.
Do not listen.
Our goal,
as we look at this passage,
is that we
would be the good soil.
We would be people
who are teachable
and tenderhearted.
We would go
the distance
that God's word
would actually take root
in our lives.
Not because
we're old-fashioned
and we can't keep up
with the times.
No,
because water
never goes out of style.
Not because
we're old-fashioned
and we can't keep up
with the times,
but because water
never goes out of style.
We still need life.
We need spiritual life.
That's why we're told
in John chapter 1,
speaking about Jesus,
in him was life
and the life
was the light of men.
We want to be able
to agree with the psalmist
in Psalm 27
that I believe
that I shall look
upon the goodness
of the Lord
in the land
of the living.
One of the dangerous
things about
the popularity
of climbing 14ers
in Colorado Springs
and in Colorado
in general
is that as it becomes
this normalized thing,
people forget
how dangerous it is.
People assume
that because it's popular,
it's for everyone.
And so often
they don't do
the research
or the preparation
that they need.
Listening to the calls
of this life
above the call
of Jesus
is like this.
It's like going
to climb a 14er
and you have gone
to REI
and you have bought
a bunch of wonderful
and high quality equipment.
You have bought
the best rain jacket
possible.
You go on your hike,
your climb,
and you see
an amazing view.
The views are great.
And then you realize
at the top
you didn't bring
any water.
Yes,
there are many
beautiful and good
things in this world.
Yes,
you have wonderful
equipment
and wonderful views
and ultimately
none of that matters
if you have forgotten
what is most important.
You might enjoy
those views
and that equipment
for a time.
You pull out
the timeline
long enough
with no water
and you are facing
a situation
of life
and death.
Brothers and sisters,
as you live life
in this world,
there are many
beautiful
and glorious things,
glorious experiences
and possessions,
and those things
are not wrong.
and if you have
forgotten
the most important
thing,
if you have
no spiritual
water,
all you have to do
is extend
the timetable
out long enough
and you are facing
a situation
of life
and death.
That is the warning
of this passage.
in one sense
you are doing
well,
in another sense
you are headed
for destruction.
There are many
good things
in this life.
There is only one
that provides us
with true life.
And so that's
the encouragement
here
of the good soil,
verse 8
and verse 20.
The good soil
produces grain
growing up
and increasing
30-fold,
60-fold
and 100-fold.
And then we're told
in verse 20
why.
Those that were
sown on the good soil
are the ones
who hear the word
and accept it
and bear fruit.
The key word
of this passage
is hearing.
Verse 3
Jesus begins
this by saying
listen.
Verse 9
He who has ears
to hear
let him hear.
Verse 12
Hear but not understand.
Verse 15
When they hear.
Verse 16
When they hear.
Verse 18
They are those
who hear.
Verse 20
The ones who hear.
There is not
just something
going on here
at the repetition level
but at the grammatical level.
When we see
the word hear
when it comes
to the bad soil
in the Greek
it's giving us
a verb tense
that means
they listened once.
When we look
at the good soil
it is using
an ongoing
active verb tense.
In other words
they listen
and are continuing
to listen.
It is not
a one time
thing that happened.
It is not
the rain
that beads up
and rolls off
the jacket.
No
it is an ongoing
present tense
experience.
I have told you
before about
the man
who says
reminds us
that the disciples
didn't get
many things right
but they got
one thing right.
They kept
following
Jesus.
This passage
reminds us
of the same thing.
We can get
many things wrong
in this life
and we will.
We can fail
and we can falter
and it is
the seed
that has power.
Keep
following
Jesus.
Stay
with
the seed.
Continue
to return
to the word.
Listen
and respond
because it is
the word
that has power.
We are here
together
this morning
looking at
what God
has to say
to us
in his word
because we
believe
it is the seed
that has
power
within itself.
It is the word
of God
at the beginning
of Genesis
that brought
something
out of nothing.
It is the word
of God
that brings
dead things
to life.
It is the word
of God
that does
what we are
told about
in Ephesians
chapter 2.
It takes
people who
are dead
and makes
them alive.
No matter
where you
are for us
if we want
to be people
who bear
fruit in our
lives
our goal
is this
we keep
listening.
We keep
following
after
Jesus.
We stay
with the
word.
That's
what we
see here
in verse
10.
I told you
before
I asked you
to imagine
an auditorium
with a speaker.
You know
if it's a good
event with a
speaker
there are
people who
are able
to come
to the
stage
afterwards
or line
up at
a microphone
to ask
questions.
And that's
what we
see
verse 10.
He was
alone.
Those
around him
with the
twelve
asked him
about the
parables.
The hard
soil
left the
auditorium.
The good
soil stayed
around and
asked Jesus
what were you
trying to
say?
They were
the ones
continuing
to question
and listen.
They want
to know
more.
They have
heard Jesus
exhortation
to listen.
They know
something
more is
going on.
So they
keep listening.
They keep
asking.
The same
is true
for us.
Now those
of you
who were
with us
in Christmas
Eve of
2018 have
heard this
story before.
As I often
say I
apologize
but I am
in no way
sorry.
some of
you know
as I
grew up
I played
violin and
viola and
I grew
up right
outside of
Washington
D.C.
in the
suburbs.
And so
this bears
special interest
for me.
I was
in college
when this
happened but
I was
still
headquartered
in D.C.
on January
the 12th
2007.
And on
January the
12th at
7.51 a.m.
there was
a man
who showed
up to
the metro
station
in D.C.
wearing jeans
and a
t-shirt
and a
Washington
Nationals
cap.
This man
proceeded to
take out
his violin
and begin
to play
as many
people do
in metro
stations.
Some people
do it here
in the
springs too.
You'll find
those in
Manitou Springs
from time
to time.
He played
for 43
minutes
a total
of six
pieces.
Seven
people
stopped
for at
least a
minute
to listen.
28
people
gave
money
and he
made a
grand
total
of
$52.
Unlike
all the
other
musicians
who
showed
up to
the
metro
station
this
man
happened
to be
Joshua
Bell
the most
famous
living
violinist
of our
time.
He
plays
typically
for
$1,000
a minute.
The violin
that he
was playing
in that
moment
cost
$3.5
million.
Three
days
earlier
he had
played
in
Boston
Symphony
Hall
and
okay
not
good
tickets
were
$100
apiece.
Only
one
person
who
passed
by
recognized
him.
Many
people
didn't
stop
because
they
were
too
busy
to
notice.
They
were
on
their
cell
phones.
They
were
more
important
things
to
attend
to.
They
were
on
their
way
to
work.
Author
of one
article
says
this,
if we
can't
take
the
time
out
of
our
lives
to
stay
a
moment
and
listen
to
one
of
the
best
musicians
on
earth
play
some
of
the
best
music
ever
written.
If
the
surge
of
modern
life
so
overpowers
us
that
we
are
deaf
and
blind
to
something
like
that,
then
another
magazine
said
this,
Joshua
Bell
does
nothing
less
than
tell
human
beings
why
they
bother
to
live.
Brothers
and
sisters,
it is
one
thing
to be
too
busy
to
hear
a
famous
musician.
It
is
quite
another
thing
to be
too
busy
to
hear
the
voice
of
God.
It
is
a
matter
of
life
and
death.
will
you
stop
and
listen?
Will
you
answer
Jesus'
call
to
follow
him?
That's
a
decision
that
God
calls
everyone
to
make.
Will
you
give
him
your
life?
Or
is
there
too
much
going
on
to
listen
to
the
music?
Verse
nine,
and
he
said,
he
who
has
ears
to
hear.
Let
him
hear.
Let's
pray.
Our
Father in
heaven,
we
thank you
for the
power
and life
of your
word.
We
ask that
you would
make us
the good
soil,
that we
would not
be pulled
away by
other loves
and other
distractions,
but that
you would
be at
work in
our
hearts,
growing
our faith
and our
trust and
our love
for you.
we
thank you
that you
are the
gardener.
We
ask that
you would
garden our
lives.
We
ask these
things in
the mighty
name of
Jesus
Christ.
Amen.
I
invite you
to stand
for our
closing
hymn.
Amen.