The Sower Sows the Word
First B Jackson
2022-05-01

Automatically transcribed. Where this and the recording disagree, the recording is the record.

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Hey there. How are you all? Able And to

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And we're going to be sing hymn number five zero eight. There are hymnals up here upfront. We used to put them all out in the pews. If you want one, you're welcome to come grab one but most of you probably going to know this song if you're attending this service on purpose. Five zero one five zero eight, Love Lifted Me.

Would you stand and sing with us? Glad you're here this morning.

I was sinking deep in sin far from the peaceful shore very deeply stained within, sinking to rise no more. But the master of the sea heard my despairing cry. From the waters lifted me now safe am I. Love lifted me, love lifted me When nothing else could help, love lifted me. Love lifted me.

Love lifted me. When nothing else could help love lifted me. All my heart to him I give, ever to him I'll cling. In his blessed presence live, ever his praises sing. Love so mighty and so true merits my soul's best songs.

Faithful, loving service to to him belongs. Love lifted me. Love lifted me. When nothing else could help love lifted me. Love lifted me.

Love lifted me. When nothing else could help. On the last, souls in danger look above. Jesus completely saves. He will lift you by his love out of the angry ways.

He's the master of the sea. Billows his will obey. He, your savior, wants to be me saved today. Love lifted me. Love lifted When nothing else could help, love lifted me.

Love lifted me. Love lifted me.

How about what a day that will be? Amen. Hymn number seven sixty two. Glorious day.

There is coming a day land. What a day, glorious day that will be. There'll be no sorrow there. No more burdens to bear. Through the promised land.

What a day, glorious day that will be.

Amen. Y'all can have a seat, and I'm gonna got some announcements for you this morning. The announcements today. Ah, the first be all stars. First be, the band that plays in there on Monday nights is the 09:00 band.

It is Monday nights at first b. 6PM meal, music, and a message. Carl's preaching from James four. What causes quarrels among us? Oh my goodness.

Do we need to hear that message or what? So if you would, come on. At 06:00, meal, music and a message. What's the meal, Carl?

Felix and Guadalupe.

Oh, Felix and Guadalupe are cooking. You can't go wrong. James Four and Felix and Guadalupe with the band. This is good. It's available on KTEL Records and Tapes.

No. Not really. That's just a joke. That's just a joke. Awana is happening at the same time in this space right here tomorrow.

So the kids, we are attempting, and there are a lot of volunteers who are helping in this, and they are humbly serving by helping the kids to put scripture into their minds so that God can use that for the rest of their lives. It's great to have a foundation. It's great to know. And as we're gonna talk about in the sermon today, there is fertile soil among the kids. The the seed tends to go deeper and get planted deeper, and it tends to grow for a lifetime.

So I would say Iwana is really, really important. We have a prayer group that meets Wednesday morning, 07:30AM in the church office. That's a great time of praying for missionaries and whatever, circumstances are going on in the life of the church and of the members of that group. There will be, two weeks from today, a French toast fundraiser for Kayleigh McClanahan's mission to Senegal. Kayleigh is going to use her understanding and knowledge of engineering and architecture and everything she's ever learned on the field in Senegal.

And if you would, between services, so at 10:00, we're going to do just a suggested donation to help her in this, mission to Senegal, French toast fundraiser in a couple of weeks. There are still, I can see them more directories available by the front doors. If you've been missing them for the past three weeks and you want to sneak out right now and go get one, go get one. Okay? They're out there.

We'll print them as you need them. We're going to get back together in song. There's one more announcement that we don't have a slide for that I saw in our weekly email bulletin. It's this Wednesday at 06:30AM is the men's gathering. The Jackson Hole Men's Alliance, 06:30, Wednesday, May 4.

May 4. Okay. I see y'all say be with you. Yeah. Everybody.

May 4, 06:30 is when that's gonna happen. It's a men's alliance meeting, and that's fun. Guys getting together with other guys early in the morning, eating a hearty breakfast and then discussing the word. Anybody have anything else I've forgotten? Alright.

Would you stand with me and we will sing His Name Is Wonderful. I think we're going sing this through twice. And moving right on to the greatest thing in all my life. Now this one, usually I say it after, but it's I can say it before. The greatest thing in all my life.

There are three verses to this, and it says the greatest thing is knowing him. Second verse says, loving him, and the third verse says, serving him. And really, those are all three the same thing. If you know him, love him. And if you love him, serve him.

Greatest thing all my life is

Y'all may be seated. I'm gonna invite the ushers if they would come forward as worship through giving or the offering time of the service right now. Would you pray with me? God, I thank you for your continued blessing, Lord. You are amazing.

You never sleep nor slumber, and you just keep on giving. You keep on blessing, Lord. I'm thankful with the changing of the seasons to see new life and pray, Lord, that we can be a part of that new life. I saw the grass this morning and just thought, wow, we're talking about the parable of the sower and how the seed is spread and how it grows up. Lord God, would you be planting that seed so deep that nothing could reach it to snuff it out or to strangle it out, Lord, but that the nurturing and the moisture and that would be like trees planted by the water in season and out of season, Lord, they never lack for anything.

Because, Lord, you have given so graciously and so abundantly, Lord, we just give you thanks. And a portion of that we want to give back so that you may bless others with the advance of your good gospel and any help that they may need. Lord, in Jesus' name, would you do your will among us here this morning in your way. Amen. Amen.

Thank you, Judy. Well, this morning, we're up to in our New Testament study. We're back to the New Testament study. We've been in for ten years. The parable of the sower.

So the parable of the sower is where we are in our study in the synoptic gospel. So we've been studying Matthew, Mark, and Luke in order. If you remember back to the last sermon that we talked about from this passage, from just before this passage, it was about Jesus not giving a sign to the Pharisees just because they were asking him to dance for their pleasure. Do it. Right?

It was not a it was not out of faith. It was not out of need. It was you prove it. And it was hard hearted, and it was aggravating. And Jesus said, no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah.

Right? That's where we were when we left off. So the parable of the sower. Since then, we've covered the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, and we cover resurrection on Resurrection Sunday, being the witnesses. And then I put an old testament passage, nine chapters worth in your lap last week from the book of Amos.

And I've had several of you say, wow, that one punched a hole in me, and I've been contemplating it every day since. Well, praise God. That's that's a helpful thing if God is communicating through his word. Today, we're gonna look into this, and we're only gonna cover this one. Now, this is an intro into several several parables of the kingdom, and we'll cover those in next week and maybe the week after.

But this one is, it's the first one, and it's the easiest, in my opinion, it's the easiest one of the the series to get. It's also absolutely essential that you understand this one for the the rest of them to make sense. And it's the only one well, it's one of two that Jesus gave an explanation for. So he gave he gave them the explanation so I don't have to guess at it as the pastor. Right?

And y'all don't have to guess at it as disciples. So we're gonna get right into it. This is, to begin with, the setting. Sometimes we just take these teachings and we kinda forget, and we divorce it from its actual real world context. Right?

There's an actual guy, actually, named Jesus, and there are these actual people that were following him, and not just the close group of the 12 disciples, but a bigger group of followers, and then a bigger group of those others. And when you think about that, sometimes you lose the real world significance of it. On that day, Jesus had gone out of the house and was sitting by the sea. Now, where he made his dwelling place usually was Capernaum. Galilean ministry, Capernaum, that's where Peter and Andrew were from, and that's where, Jesus found himself most of the time.

And large crowds gathered to him, so he got into a boat and he sat down, and the whole crowd was standing on the beach. Again, Mark says, he began to teach by the sea and such a very large crowd gathered to him that he got out into a boat on the sea, and he sat down, and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. And then Luke, he doesn't mention the beach, he just says it was a large crowd. Now when a large crowd was coming together, and those from various cities were journeying to him, his popularity and fame as a great teacher and miracle worker had grown, and so he is getting a lot of attention. This place right here, I got a I got a in the first service, I had to make a retraction.

Nick actually corrected me between services about a month ago. I said something about or on I think it was, on Easter. I said I said, I've never been to the Red Sea, but I have been to the Red Sea. I went with Nick and a bunch of other people from this church. A bunch of y'all saw me there.

This is not the Red Sea. This is the Sea Of Galilee. I just, sometimes we've just forget. We misplace ourselves, don't we? This is Sower's Cove.

So it's the traditional spot. We don't know if it's true. If you ever go on an Israel study tour, they'll say, this is the traditional spot where this happened. We don't know if it's true. Exactly.

We know that the story carries weight and that it's true, but where it happened? Somewhere like this. This is a fellow that flew over and took a picture. Do you see the little cove there? It's a natural amphitheater shape.

There's another picture from the other side. There's a road which has been there, since antiquity. There's a grove of, obviously planted plants, and then there's some rocky places, and it's it looks like the place for this story. In the seventies, there was a guy who became obsessed with when he was reading the Bible, he was acoustic engineer, and he became obsessed with how these crowds, when it says 5,000, the feeding of the 5,000 men plus women, oh my goodness, where could this possibly have been that that many people could hear a man's voice? So he took to the holy land with his equipment, and he went out and he tested things.

And this one he says, if you got out on a boat right there in the center of the cove, it would be no problem at all for five to 7,000 people to hear this message. That's a great crowd. Anyway, that's it. Sower's Cove. I'm not saying that has to be the place, but this was what was taught somewhere near there.

That's just South of Capernaum. And he told them many things in parables, Matthew says, saying and he was teaching them many things in parables, Mark says, and was saying to them in his teaching and Luke says and he spoke by way of a parable. This was the beginning one, and it was set apart from the others because it has some back and forth between Jesus and the disciples. As far as the parable itself goes, it's the most similar of any of the parables of Jesus, of any of the stories that are told in all three gospels. It's almost word for word in each of the three.

The order on the thirty, sixty, or a 100 fold gets out of order in some places, but it's the same story. So I'll let it be representative. The parable is what's next. I'll let Matthew tell us the parable because it's almost the same story in both. Are you with me still?

Yes. So we know the setting. There is a cove where a lot of people are gathered, and Jesus is sitting down on a boat. That's the typical teaching position is to be seated, and he was seated in teaching. And he told them many things in parables saying, behold, look at this, pay attention.

That's what behold means. The sower went out to sow. Now, some people just see this as a tautology and say, duh. That's what sowers do, but that's not all they do. Right?

But this parable is about the act of sowing something, the seed. Behold, the sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. That's one horrible waste if you look at it like that, right? The seeds went out there. Well, not if you're the birds.

But they don't do what the sower had intended for them, or did they? Let's go on. Jesus explains this when I don't have to explain it. As he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road and the birds came and ate them up. They didn't enter into the soil because it was so hard.

Others fell on the rocky places where there are rocks in there with them, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up immediately. When I see this, every time I see this, I think at kindergarten where you plant the little plants in the little plastic cup. You know what I mean? You've got a clear plastic cup and you've got this much dirt and you put a seed in there. Boy, it comes up so fast that kindergarteners are interested in it.

Yeah. I won't say what happens to them thereafter. Let Jesus say it. They sprang up immediately because they had no depth of soil. But after the sun rose, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away.

That's what happens if you don't have deep roots and plenty of nurture it and nourishment. Other seed fell among the thorns, and thorns came up and choked them out. That sounds a lot like the next parable he's gonna use. The very next one is the wheat and the tares. But others fell on good soil, and the ones that fell on good soil yielded a crop, some a 100, some 60, and some 30 times as much.

And then he closes it off like this, the one who has ears, let him hear. That's in each of the three gospels. The one who has ears, let him hear. So it's open to anyone who will listen to it. If he's saying, the one who has ears, let him hear, is he speaking in code that only certain people can understand?

That is kind of the way it comes out, but it's based on a condition of the soil. He's just described what the soil is. There's good soil, and then there are three not so good. One that's absolutely terrible. Peter Brugel the Elder.

Do you all know who this is? Anybody any art historians in the bunch? So he's from the Flemish Renaissance or the Danish or Flemish Renaissance. And it's an interesting thing. Peter Brugel the Elder is one of the first people, not the first, but during the Renaissance, the high Italian Renaissance were at this time, not quite high Italian Renaissance, but the Renaissance in Italy was so popular that it was drawing artists from other places.

And Peter Peter Brugel the Elder took the journey and went over the Alps to get to Italy. And so if you look at almost any of his pictures, he has mountains because he has crossed the Alps. He's seen a thing or two. And those are pretty rocky mountains. He also has almost always, whether it's summer or winter, he has a sky, and he almost always has a swan or goose, depending on who you are, flying on the wing.

And the most famous one of Peter Brugel, the elders, two Americans, the most famous one of his paintings is probably this one, Hunters in the Snow from a little while after this. And again, he has that bird up in the air. Winter, spring, summer, or fall, he's always got a lot going on. Look at that one. I mean, are people ice skating, there are people hunting, and there are dogs, and all kinds of stuff.

And it has a similar look. His paintings tell a story, but usually they're landscape paintings and then they tell something. You don't know what. But they're often called like the one the sower, the parable of the sower is called landscape with the parable of the sower because he's kinda showing all the very conditions. This shows a stump.

Can you see the stump? There's a stump right there, but it's all obviously been cut down, and it's been taken down to allow the sun to get to the ground. And you can see that there's part of this has been cultivated, and then there's a part outside of that which has been cultivated. We've got a rock right here. We've got briars and thorns all around here.

And if you scoot a little bit to the left, you'll see a sower who has gone out to sow. He's got a bag of seed and he's flinging it, broadcasting it as it were. That's what they called that. And it's throwing it and some of it's fallen on good soil that has been prepared and cultivated. The last thing I said a month ago before you left was take the time necessary to cultivate the soil of your heart.

If you if you have anything to do with it, open yourself up to God revealing and showing you new truth. Oh, boy. That's a there we go. Thank you. That's that.

And there's the church and there are other people working in the field down below, and there's a gal on a horse, and there's a lot going on. There's a lot going on in these paintings. And if you stand in front of the painting, you just go, wow, that's a lot. He's not just telling one story. He's telling a lot of different things right here.

So that's the whole painting, and you might have overlooked the parable of the sower in there if you didn't know any better, but there it is. Luke says, and we'll let him represent this portion because in all three of the gospels it says, now his disciples began asking him what this parable meant. Actually, think I included all three. Now his disciples began asking him what this parable meant. Right there.

Just think about this. If you are a disciple of Jesus and you don't understand what he's doing, ask him. It's it's just that simple. Ask him in prayer. Ask him.

I don't know what you're doing right here, Lord. Would you show me? And he said, to you, it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest, they're told in parables so that while seeing, they may not see, and while hearing, they may not understand. Mark says it almost the same way. As soon as he was alone, oh, but he was alone.

So his disciples heard this parable and all of the other parables of the kingdom, and then when they retreated and they were alone, they said, tell us about this now. Tell us what it means. As soon as he was alone, his followers along with his 12 disciples began asking him about the parables, and he was saying to them, to you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God. But for those who are outside, everything comes in parables, So that while seeing, they may see and yet not perceive. And while hearing, they may hear and not understand.

Otherwise, they might return and it would be forgiven them. Now this sounds like that's intentionally coded message. Well, it is dependent upon the condition of the soil, and that's what the parable is about, and that's what he'll say. Actually, in Matthew, he goes into even further detail and quotes Isaiah. And I think that Isaiah, you know, remember Amos last week?

He's a contemporary of Isaiah, same time period, seven hundred and something years before Christ, and Christ is quoting Isaiah in Isaiah's time, but also in Christ's time, and I say also in our time today. It's very pertinent. Let's get to it. And the disciples came up and said to him, why do you speak to them in parables? And Jesus said, to you it's been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.

You're following me and you're seeing that mystery played out right now, God in the flesh. But to them it has not been granted for whoever has to him more shall be given and he will have an abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has, shall be taken away from him. Therefore, I speak to them in parables. Because while seeing, they do not see.

And while hearing, they do not hear, nor do they understand. There's something about the condition of their hearts that is keeping them from it. Now, we say almost every week that God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. And these guys who are humbly following him have been given the mystery of the kingdom of God. And in their case, this is Jesus speaking to his disciples talking about the outsiders, whether they be Pharisees, Sadducees, whatever outside of this.

And in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled which says, you shall keep on listening but shall not understand. And you shall keep on looking but shall not perceive. For the heart of this people has become dull, that this people that's why I say in Isaiah's time, that was true. And in Jesus' time, they had taken scripture and they had looked at it and tried to twist it into what they wanted for it to say. They weren't really interested in what God was saying.

They wanted to interpret it favorable to them, and I think we do that too. For the heart of this people has become dull. With their ears, they scarcely hear. Now there was no lack of a message being presented then. There were messages coming at them from all sides.

In our day, there are messages coming at us from primarily two sides, but they're coming at us constantly, are they not? And if you just keep on and keep on and keep on, with their ears they scarcely do they hear at all, and with their eyes they've closed their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes and they might hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and return. And if they return, I would heal them. That's what God says.

If they will return, I will heal them. Now, being that Isaiah is a contemporary of Amos, and what Amos said last week has been pursuing me. I gave you cleanness of teeth, a famine. I gave you cleanness of teeth, a famine, and you did not return to me. And then it says, I gave you a war, basically, a difficult time where your sons were being killed in war, and you did not return to me.

I gave you a plague, and all of those things were designed for us to turn our hearts towards God, and yet you did not return to me. And if people don't turn to him in the hard times, they're hardly ever gonna turn to him in the good times. Understand with their heart and return, and I would heal them. So what he's saying is, if you would relent and return, repent and turn, I will heal you. But unfortunately, for three offenses and for four, people get beyond the pale.

They go beyond what God is willing to put up with. Now that sits with people, and they just go, that makes me so mad, and I don't think that's right of God. His mercy is supposed to endure forever. It does. To the humble, but to the proud, he opposes the proud.

He gives grace to the humble. And so, there are folks who will be outside of it. And hearing, they will not hear, and seeing, they will not understand. But blessed, Jesus says, are your eyes, disciples and followers, because they do see and your ears because they do hear. For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see.

The day of Messiah when God would come, They are seeing it with their own eyes and they're hearing his voice with their own ears. Truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see, and they did not see it. At least they didn't see it on earth. Here and there now. They did not see it in to hear what you hear, and they did not hear it.

They prophesied in part, but they didn't see it whole. So the explanation goes further. This is what we have in each of the of the three. Since Mark was the longest, I took Mark to be our representative sample here. He said to them, do you not understand this parable?

Y'all y'all don't get it. You didn't catch that one. Now that we're alone, I've I've shared these parables, a lot of them all at one time, and you're asking about the very first one. Did you not get it? You not understand it?

How then will you understand all of the rest of them? Because all the rest of them relate back to this. It depends upon the condition of your heart as to whether you will receive the message of any of the rest of these. The sower sows the word. Now, in Aramaic, it's not as hard to tell as it is in English.

If you heard that parable and you'd never heard it in Sunday school and you never heard it from the pulpit and you never read it, the explanation from Jesus in your life, you look at that and go, I wonder what each one of those things represents. And throughout the history of the church, we've got people even though Jesus explains it, we've got people saying, well, the seed is blah blah blah. And it's Jesus says flatly, the seed is the word of God. The word of God. Now, I mean, yes, John does call Jesus the word, and he could be talking about that receiving Jesus, but I think he's talking about any of the content that God is offering.

The word of God. The sower sows the word of God. These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown, and when they hear immediately, Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them, and that is the road, hard pack road. And I said a little while ago, it's sad that the seed doesn't do what it was supposed to do, but it is taken up by the birds, so it's not sad for the birds. It's not sad for Satan that there are hard hearts.

It's not sad for that kingdom that people don't allow it to enter. Okay, to the next type of soil, and in a similar way, these are the ones sown with seed on the rocky places. So this is the one that has a little soil, but little rocks that doesn't allow for the roots to go deep. When they heard the word, they immediately receive it with joy even, and yet they have no firm root in themselves, but they are only temporary. Yeah.

That makes sense, but then they're drawn away because they don't have a deep understanding. Right now, I'm drawn to first Peter five six through 11 that says that we have an adversary, your adversary, the devil. He is trying his best to pull you down. This receive it with joy, and then they fade. When it says we have an adversary, your adversary, the devil is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

The very next line there is resist him, firm in your faith. If you resist him on your own without any faith, you can't stand. But if you resist him firm in your faith, you can stand. No firm root in themselves. It takes being rooted deeply, but they're only temporary.

And then when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones sown with seed among the thorns. These are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of this world and the deceitfulness of wealth, specifically it says, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter and they choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. If you're trying to grow something, you cultivate the field first, you take out all the rocks you can. I think of going to Idaho Falls.

Every time a year, there's something going on with those potatoes and something going on with that barley. Every time of the year, no matter what, there's something going on and they're either digging up rocks and getting them out of there or they're digging up potatoes and getting them out of there. They're working on it. This we don't want anything to compete, be on the same level with this seed, whatever the seed is. And this says the word of God.

The word of God should be more important to us than anything else that's going on around us. Now, yes, preaching is, according to Haddon Robinson, holding the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other. Yes, we do kinda need to know what's going on in the world, but we need to know this because this is above what's going on in the world. Under the sun thinking is the best that we can hope for out of the newspaper. Right?

And you get vanity all is vanity from Ecclesiastes. But if you've got the word of God, that's not just under the sun thinking. That is the very heart, the word of God. So worries of the world, deceitfulness of wealth. Jesus said it was harder for a rich man and he knows what he's talking about.

Specifically, that was one of them. And the desires for other things enter and they choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. It doesn't mean it wasn't in there. It just means that there were so many other things going on that it was in danger of being choked out, and it's unfruitful. And then the last one, and those are the ones sown with the seed on the good soil, and they hear the word, and they accept it, and they bear fruit thirty, sixty, and a 100 times as much.

That's the good soil. And out of these four types, there's only one good soil, right? I'm gonna close, believe it or not, with this. I kept you twenty minutes late last week. I let you go twenty minutes early this week.

Actually, we have communion, so that's not quite true. I I think that Kistemacher Simon Kistemacher, if you go into the office, I've got a red set of of commentaries that this guy and a Hendrickson wrote together. And I think he nails it just in one long run on sentences sentence right here. Think about this. The word of God is proclaimed and causes division among those who hear.

That's true. And I think it's true every time. So every time that God's word is proclaimed, I think it has the same kind of effect. You can either accept the message and allow it to bear fruit in your own life individually, which we'll bless around. Or you can have one of the other three types of soil.

He's got them in a different order than the parable. He starts with the good soil. The word of God is proclaimed and causes division among those who hear. God's people receive the word, understand it, and obediently fulfill it. Amen.

That's good. That's where we wanna be. We could put a period right there and we'd be fine if that is where we are. I might add a little addendum in here though. If you don't understand it, you hear God's word and you don't understand it, then ask him.

Question it, and he'll give you an explanation. You're one of his followers. He says that he wants to reveal to you the mysteries. The word of God is proclaimed because of division among those who hear it. God's people receive the word, understand it, and obediently fulfill it.

To know him is to love him, to love him is to serve him. Others though fail to listen because of a hardened heart. Now that's hard. Difficult, difficult thing for us to hear. I told you last week that the most popular heresy in our day is universalism, and the only problem with universalism, it is, it is amazing to think about, and it's wonderful to think about God's power to change and transform, but universalism says that all will come eventually.

All will come to the knowledge of God, and all will eventually be saved. The only problem with that is Old Testament and New Testament are completely against that thought. The hardness of heart matters. When you see God hardened Pharaoh's heart, that's problematic for a lot of people. They say that sounds like predestined to damnation and I don't like that.

Well, look at Pharaoh hardened his heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart. Pharaoh hardened his heart. That's three times it says that before it ever says that God's like, yep. You've you've passed the point, Pharaoh.

Then it says God hardened his heart. Others fail to listen because of a hardened heart. One of the privileges of the job is to help people when they're struggling in relationships. This job, one of the privileges of marrying a lot of people for whatever destination weddings or because I know them and love them or they know and love me, I get to do a lot of weddings, and I always have them promise me that if you ever feel like you're struggling or you're having trouble, call me and give me a shot at putting you back together. You know?

And they all I won't do it unless they promise that. And it gives an opportunity. If people have a soft heart towards each other and they're just struggling communicating or they can't get together on something, then giving them some insight as to how to get back together is is a good good good thing. But one of the most frustrating things in all of ministry is to have someone who has a hardened heart that will not soften their heart towards their partner. If you look at Jesus being questioned by the pharisees and seeking to trick him, not out of faith, not out of wanting to know the truth, and seeking to trick him, knowing that it would be a difficult question, the pharisees asked Jesus about divorce.

And Jesus said, what do you say? What's your reading of it? What did the scripture say? What's your reading of it? And then they say, well, he says we can do it.

All we have to do is this. Yep. But the why is because of the hardness of heart. You can't soften someone else's heart. The best you can hope for is to lovingly quiet witness of a loving spouse is the best that an unbelieving husband, specifically spouse has.

But you can't do anything to soften another person's heart. And this says that God is not going to be received by anyone with a hard heart. He knows how you feel. Word of God's proclaim causes division. God's people receive it, understand it, obediently fulfill it.

Others fail to listen because of a hardened heart or a basic superficiality. It just doesn't go deep, and it just rests with everything else. Or a vested interest in riches and possessions. Jesus said, where your treasure is, there's where your heart's gonna be. And so amassing things and possessions and riches is antithetical to the reception of God's word.

That's the last slide that I have, I think, before the communion slide. And Old Testament was hard, but from the look of your faces right now, this one was hard too. I will say this, You can cultivate soil. You can throw the rocks out of the way. You can clear the weeds.

And if you will open yourself to God doing that for you, he can make a fertile plain where there is right now a well trodden path. He can do that. Open yourself up in humility and God can do that. So would can I get the ushers to come forward? Ray, would you come forward and fill?

Judy's gonna play something pretty, and I'm gonna just ask a blessing right now. They're gonna bring forward baskets. They have in these baskets the communion cups. They're little plastic cups with a tinfoil top. You all know the deal by now.

Hopefully, we'll be getting back to the plate sometime soon just because But this is representative, and I'm just gonna ask a blessing before. God, we look at this. We look at last week's message and this week's message, and both of them can be hard to hear, Lord. I pray that we would be hearing it that way because of humility before you. That we, Lord, looking at this passage or go, Lord, I want to produce fruit.

I want to do that because the word has something deep in my life and it's growing up, nurtured. Lord God, may I be useful for you. May I be helpful. May I be a sower who goes forth to sow. But Lord, we look and we see our lives and we see thorns around us or we see hardness of heart in specific areas.

God, I ask right now during this prayer that for me, myself, Ray McDaniel, and for each one present that you would touch our hearts, Lord, with the places that are rocky and thorny, and that you would be cultivating that soil. Lord, you have done all that was necessary for us to experience an abundant life in you, to have victory in Jesus. So Lord, I pray that as we celebrate this communion, this time where you showed us that you came and walked out this perfect life and that you sacrificed your innocent blood for us. Lord, I pray that it would go very, very deep into our heart. In Jesus' name, we ask your blessing on this bread and this grape juice as we distribute it.

Amen. Now, on the same night that Jesus was betrayed, he took bread after supper and after he had given thanks, he blessed it and he broke it and he said to his disciples who were there with him and he still echoes into the disciples who are here with him today. He says, this is my body which is broken for you. Take this and eat of it and do it in remembrance of me. And in the same way that he had taken the bread, he also took the cup.

The methods change. That was probably a common cup in the day, and it's this right now. But he said to them and he says to us, this is the new covenant in my blood. Take this and drink of it and do it as often as you will in remembrance of me. And Paul says that as often as we do that, we proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again.

His death means an end to canceled sin. Right? The, forgiveness for our current struggles and entry into the kingdom. In Jesus' name, I pray, Lord, that you would be very active, among us this week, that we recognize your word when we see it, that it would go deep in our hearts, and that we'd be able to be very fruitful, in our humble obedience. In Jesus' name, we pray.

Amen. Would you stand with me and we're gonna sing one more hymn? My Jesus, I love thee. Amen. How about just receive this blessing from Numbers?

May the Lord bless you and keep you and make his face to shine upon you and give you peace. Lord God Almighty, may we be carriers of your peace. Amen.