Bible Study Lesson- The Kingdom Of God - Power Of A Seed Part 6

Welcome to episode 37. We're going to start this one like we start everyone, in the Gospel of John 1:1.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast. Where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Welcome back to episode 37. We're going to get right back into the lesson on the seed and Jesus talking about the different types of ground, and we're going to jump right back. If you haven't listened to any of the previous episodes, it's— I think it's episode 31 through 36 is where I've talked about the power of the seed. But specifically now we're in Mark 4:13-20, and I'm going to read that, so it's going to be a lot of reading. 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 by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have not root in themselves, and so endure, endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble. Now these are the ones sown among thorns. They are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desire of other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But these are the ones sown on good ground, who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit, some 30-fold, some 60, and some 100. Now I know that's a lot of reading for one episode, but you know, since this is Bible-based, if we don't talk about the Bible, then it's just me rattling on about whatever I think I ought to be talking about. But I, I believe that the word of God is so important that we just need to listen to it, and then we just need to start pondering. We need to slow down a little bit, and we need to think about what God is trying to say to us through all of these scriptures that we've been opening up. And we— I want to go back to saying, you know, in, in Matthew 6:33, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. And then we bring this parable of the seed and we throw out the word of God. So I'm going to talk about— on this episode, I'm going to talk about the different types of ground that the seed is sown on. And since we've already talked about in previous episodes about the spiritual and the physical realm, I— you, you should have a little bit— if you've listened to any of my teachings, you should have a little bit of an understanding about the spiritual realm and the, in the physical realm, that some, some of these truths, and a lot of these truths, are spiritual and so when they talk about the heart, he's talking about your soul, your spirit, your mind, will, and emotion. When it's sowed into your mind, will, and emotion, remember, your body is fighting your spirit, and your spirit man is 100%, just like Jesus. So your spirit don't need no fixing, and your body is unfixable. So when this— when the seed is sown, the only place that it can go into is your mind, your will, and emotions. And so when they talk about your heart, or that it's been sown on your heart, that is where we're talking, and that is what needs to be prepared to listen to the Word of God. And so that's why you need humility. That's why you need to humble yourself. That's why God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble, is because if you're just hard-hearted, you know, you're fighting God. There's no way that that seed, the Word of God, is even going to enter into your mind, will, and emotion. You've just got it blocked out. It's like throwing it on concrete. And again, I'm going to go back just because this is where I'm living right now. We have had a winter event here, and so there's a lot of snow on the ground, the ground's iced up and that type of thing. But we're throwing out bird seed to the birds— or actually, my wife is, I need to be more specific. My wife is throwing out bird seed on the ground and in some feeders and stuff like that so that the birds can get something to eat. But she's throwing it out on the ground. It is not going into the soil. It's sitting right on top of the snow and then on, on top of the concrete or the, you know, of the planter or whatever that she's sitting it on. But the birds are flying in and they're, they're devouring that seed. And there's a bunch of birds coming, so it's a pretty cool picture in the physical realm of what— if you can imagine, and I know we shouldn't be looking for angels and demons on every doorknob, but if you can imagine when the— when your pastor is throwing out the word of God, if you— if you are hard— if you're not paying attention, or if you didn't prepare yourself before you come in and listen to this message, if you haven't humbled yourself, if you think you got all the— you're in control and that you've got this thing then your heart is not in a position to take the Word of God that the pastor has prepared. It is not the pastor's job to prepare you or your heart. That's what you do before you come in or before you listen to what he has prepared. He, he brings the meal to you, the bread of life to you, or in this analogy, he brings the seed from the incorruptible seed from the Word of God. He brings that to you. You're the one that has to plant it in. You got to prepare the soil. And if your soul is not— if it's hardened, like if you got a hard heart, or if you have not prepared for the message— that's why when you walk out, and I've done this, and the reason I'm teaching on this is because I've lived this, you know. I've gone in and I'm distracted when I'm in church or whatever, not all the time but sometimes. And if you walk into the service, and that's why you have a lot of praise and worship at the beginning, kind of, kind of to kind of melt away all that garbage that was in the world, but you praise and worship before you— and so you enter his gates with thanksgiving and enter his courts with praise, and you get into the presence of God. Well, if during the praise and worship, if you hadn't entered in, if you're still out in the world somewhere, if you're still worried about how you're going to pay the bills or what's going to happen, or you— or the fight you just had with your spouse or whatever it is, if your mind is not on God, then anything that the, the pastor preaches or teaches to you, it's just going to hit the— it's going to be like sitting on concrete. And then you have in the spirit realm, you've got these punk demons, these little— and you know, I don't know who you are, but in my world, I probably got this little old imp that is nothing, just comes in and just swipes it up and says, nah, we're not— you're not going to get this. So he just takes that word, and when you walk out of the service, you know, if you go to get something to eat or you go to whatever you're doing next, your next thing on your calendar for Sunday afternoon, and someone says, "What was the service about?" and you can't remember what they talked about, that word has been stolen from you. So that's why if you can take notes and if you can, you know, if you can kind of mill it over and you've opened the Bible, you know, you get to It's good to have the devotionals, but if you go to church, your pastor has been given authority over you to shepherd you, and if he prepares the meal or the seed for you, then it's your responsibility to plant that into your heart. So that is the stony— that, that's the, that's the hard heart, that it's on the wayside. And then you go into the next, the next level is the stony ground. And that is where it has no real depth. There's not a lot of earth, or, you know, it's just— there's a bunch of distractions, it's not real deep. So when the seed goes in, it's, it's taken in. I mean, you've got a lot of distractions, but, you know, you're ready. You praised and worshiped a little bit, and so you're, you're ready for the seed, and it goes in there. But then, you know, it starts growing a little bit. Well, then the care— the you know, the problems, your persecution. Somewhere you, you open your mouth at the water cooler and then someone beats you up because, you know, they were, they were trying— you tried to help apply the word of God that you heard Sunday to a friend or a colleague, and that didn't work out too well. So then you get beat up, then you got persecutions, and then maybe you think to yourself, well, I'm not going to do that again. That is, that's what Jesus is talking about. Maybe on the maybe the shallow earth, you don't have a lot of depth into, you know, maybe, maybe you ought to just take some of this, this teaching in and let it grow instead of just taking it, think, oh, I got this. And I'm not telling you that you don't help your brother or sister at work or whatever, but if you're not ready for the persecution that comes, that could possibly come from you sharing the word of God then it may be better just to let that grow and let them roots take hold. And I just looked at the clock and it looks like we're getting closer to 10 minutes, and I'm trying real hard to— 10 to 12. I mean, I, I know that it's tough to get right at 10 minutes, but I want, I want to keep this as— to keep these lessons as easy to, to consume as possible. In 10 minutes, I think that's as much as as we ought to try to do in one day. And there's a lot of other great podcasts out there that you can be listening to, and I appreciate you listening to me. And I am going to pick up the next two types of soil on the next podcast. But thank you for being a part of this episode, and I look forward to visiting with you tomorrow.

Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.