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No.

Alright, good morning everybody and welcome to this bright and beautiful day here at Wilmington Community Evangelical Church. If you look outside, you can almost feel that spring is right around the corner. You can almost sense it. In fact, we're only about 4 weeks away to the first start of spring. In fact, if you've looked at the weather forecast for next week, it's going to feel like it's summer. We'll all be walking around in t-shirts and shorts.

What?

Yeah, it's going to be up at, I think Wednesday it's going to be 60 degrees out. It'll be a heat wave. Now about this time, if you are getting ready for spring, people are out there maybe getting their gardens ready, maybe getting their plants ready to plant, things like that. Myself, when I was growing up, I grew up in farming country.

Makia.

I grew up helping on my grandfather's farm in Illinois. Now, when I tell people that I'm from Illinois, a lot of them, the only two things that they really know about Illinois is that Chicago is located there, and they think that all of the Illinois is just Chicago, or they know about the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. That's about the only two things. But if you have ever driven north to south or south to north through Illinois during the summertime, you will see one thing: acres and acres of corn everywhere. You cannot get rid of it. It extends forever. And you would look at that and you would think, that is enough corn to feed the whole planet. Nowadays, most of that corn is used for ethanol production. But when I was growing up on my— helping out on my grandfather's farm, we would grow it for seed corn to be replanted. Now, the message that we're going to hear today is about the parable of the sower, and I really like this simply because of my farming background, helping out on my grandfather's farm. And much like what the parable talks about, you know, there's good times, there's mediocre times, and there's bad times. And that's the way it was with my grandfather. There would be times when we would have an abundant harvest. Everything would work great. We'd have rain when we needed it in season. We'd have the, you know, great sunshine. Everything worked great and we had a great harvest. There are other times when it was kind of mediocre. It could have been good, could have been bad, but it was enough to provide. And then there were other times when either there was too much rain and the crops rotted in the fields, Or there are other times when the sun beat down so hot that it just, what they called, burned the fields and the corn stalks would dry up or whatever crops we were planting. But one thing that my grandfather didn't do when these things happened, you know, he didn't stop planting when he had a good harvest and say, you know what, I've had a great harvest this year, I'm not going to plant next year. Or if he had a mediocre harvest or if he had a a bad harvest, he would still go out there and sow, he'd still go out there and plant. And that's the way it is with our own Christian lives. We do a lot of sowing as Christians. We do it within our own families, we do it within our own relationships with our extended families, with our coworkers. And sometimes, you know, that harvest doesn't seem like it's that abundant. We might not see it as being a plentiful return. But that doesn't stop us from sowing. We still go out there and sow the word. We still go out there and tell everybody about the good news, regardless of whether or not we see that harvest. I mean, Jesus told his disciples at the closing of chapter 9 in Matthew that the harvest is plentiful. Pray that we have workers for the harvest, to bring the harvest in. So when we hear the message today, you know, it's like I said, it's very meaningful to me simply because of my background working on my grandfather's farm. But think about those times in your own life when, you know, there was a plentiful harvest for the things that you were going on within your Christian walk. But always remember that regardless of the circumstances, we are still there to sow God's word. Let's pray. Father God, we're thankful for this time together. We're thankful that we could come to be with you in your house and just enjoy each other's fellowship. We're thankful that you have provided and given us plenty of everything. Now we just commit our time to you, Father God, as we go into the corporate worship here, Father God, and just pray that our, our praise to you will be received and be meaningful to you. And we ask all this in your precious son Jesus's name. And one thing I need to mention is that we do have a photographer, Steve, with the church who is coming through and taking pictures. He might have seen him, somebody walking around taking pictures. This is because we are going to be redesigning our English ministry website. It's a little outdated, so we need— in order to do that, we need to have pictures. Now, if you're not too sure if I want to have my face posted up there and for everybody to see, there is plenty of time for it to be removed. We're taking pictures, then there will be a review process of which pictures we are going to be presenting onto the website. But the idea is that we will take, you know, current pictures to present the English ministry and the church as a whole in the best light as possible. Our website just needs a lot of updating. I need updating myself, but it's not as easy as Photoshopping the pictures or anything like that. So you see that going on, that's what's occurring. All right, let's get ready for worship. Thank you.

All right, so good morning everyone. Yes, so you need to put on your, your best faces for the camera, right? No, no, no, we, we want to genuinely worship today in the morning. Um, so actually we have a few songs where it would be very nice if we had more participation, uh, right? Especially the first song, uh, if you guys could try to clap along, we just want to encourage that, that atmosphere where we're worshiping with our whole bodies and not just our voices. So we can be a little bit more expressive. And if you don't feel comfortable with that, that's completely fine, but we would like to invite you to join us in that. So if you could please rise and join us as we worship.

I raise, I raise a hallelujah in the presence of my enemies.

I raise a hallelujah Louder than the unbelief, I raise a hallelujah. My weapon is a melody, I raise a hallelujah. Heaven comes to fight for me.

I'm gonna sing.

I'm gonna sing.

Singing, I raise, I raise a hallelujah.

Hallelujah! With everything inside of me, I raise a hallelujah! I will watch the darkness flee. I raise a hallelujah in the middle of the mystery. I raise a hallelujah. Fear, you lost your hold on me.

I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm. Louder and louder, you're gonna hear my praises roar. Up from the ashes, hope will arise. Death is defeated. Death is defeated, the King is alive. I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm. Louder and louder, you're gonna hear my praises roar. Up from the ashes, hope will arise. Death is defeated, the King is alive.

Sing!

Sing louder—

sing it loud-er...sing-a-little-loader-singa-littlE-LautER-SING-A-LITTLE-LOUDER-SINGA-LITTL-E-LOUDER...SING A LITTE LOUDAH SING A LITTLE LOWDER Sing a little louder. In the presence of my enemies.

Sing a little louder.

Louder than the unbelief.

Sing a little louder.

My weapon is a melody.

Sing a little louder.

Heaven comes to fight for me.

Hey!

Sing a little louder.

In the presence of my enemies. Sing a little louder. Loud than the unbelief.

I'll sing a little louder.

My weapon is a melody.

I'll sing a little louder.

Heaven comes to fight for me.

I'll sing a little louder.

I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm. Louder and louder, you're gonna hear my praises rise up from the earth. From the ashes hope will arise. Death is defeated, the King is alive. Oh, I'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm. Louder and louder, you're gonna hear my praises roar. Up from the ashes hope will arise. Death is defeated, the King is alive.

Come on! Sing I raise— I raise a hallelujah!

Hallelujah!

Raise up hallelujah! Raise up hallelujah!

I raise up hallelujah!

Raise up hallelujah!

I raise up hallelujah! Raise up hallelujah!

I raise up hallelujah! The presence of God has come down to this place today.

Of my enemies. I raise a hallelujah louder than the unbelief.

I raise a hallelujah.

My weapon is a melody.

And I raise a hallelujah.

Heaven comes to fight for me.

that lay between us. How high the mountain I could not climb. In desperation, I turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night. Then through the darkness Your loving kindness tore through the shadows of my soul. The work is finished, the end is written. Jesus Christ, my living hope. Who could imagine so great a mercy? What heart could fathom such boundless grace? The God of ages stepped down from glory to wear my sin and bear my shame. The cross has spoken, I am forgiven. The King of Kings calls me his own. Beautiful Savior, I'm yours forever. Jesus Christ, my living hope.

Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope. Hallelujah, praise the one who Set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope.

The morning that sealed the promise, your buried body began to breathe. Out of the silence, the roaring lion declared, "The grave has no claim on me." Then came Paul Condrell. Then came the morning that sealed the promise.

Your buried body began to breathe out of the silence.

The roaring lion declared the grave has no claim on me.

Jesus, yours is the victory. Whoa, hallelujah. Praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah. Death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope. We sing hallelujah. Hallelujah, praise the one who set me free. Hallelujah, death has lost its grip on me. You have broken every chain. There's salvation in your name, Jesus Christ, my living hope. Jesus Christ, my living hope.

Oh God, you You are my living hope.

It was my cross you bore so I could live in the freedom you died for.

—for.

And now my life is yours, and I will sing of your goodness forevermore. Worthy is your name, Jesus. You deserve the praise. Praise. Worthy is your name. Worthy is your name, Jesus. You deserve the praise. Worthy is your name. Now my shame is gone. I stand amazed in your love, undeniable. Your grace goes on and on. And I will sing of your goodness forevermore. Worthy is your name, Jesus. You deserve the praise. Worthy is your name. Worthy is your name, Jesus. You deserve the praise. Worthy is your name, worthy is your name, Jesus. You deserve the praise. Worthy is your name, worthy is your name, Jesus. You deserve the praise. Worthy is your name. Be exalted now in the heavens as your glory fills this place. You alone deserve our praise. You're the name above all names. Be exalted now in the heavens as your glory fills this place. You alone deserve our praise. You're the name above all names. Be exalted now in the heavens as your glory fills this place. This place! You alone deserve our praise— you're the name above all names! Be exalted now in the heavens as your glory fills this place! You alone deserve our praise— you're the name above all names! Be exalted now in the heaven as your glories fill this place! You alone deserve our praise!

Thank God for Jesus Christ today. Hallelujah to him forevermore. Amen?

Let's stand up together right here at home or wherever we may be watching from across America tonight on Christmas Eve night. And let us just lift those hands of worship towards Him once again because He deserves it so much more than anything else that could ever happen around us.

So come along if you would join me and sing out loud these words.

We love singing them every year during Advent season when there's an anticipation building about what he will do You're through his birth next week. Yeah! Come on church, the can I hear y'all say amen?! Glory to name God! Praise His holy Name! Yes Lord! Oh above yes Lord! all names. Be exalted now in the heavens as your glory fills this place. You're the focus of our praise. You're the name above all names. You're the name above all names. Worthy is your name, Jesus. You deserve the praise. Worthy is your name. Worthy is your name. Jesus! You deserve— you deserve praise worthy of your name; worthy of your name Jesus! You deserve to be praised worthy of Your Name; Worthy Is Your Name... Jesus! of the praise. Worthy is your name.

Let's bow our heads in prayer. Uh, dear Holy Father, Lord, we come before you this morning just humbled by your presence, humbled by how worthy the name of Jesus is. Lord, would you forgive us for the times when we come before you and we dishonor your name, for the times where we don't give you the due worth that's due to your name, Lord, because you're worth every breath that we could possibly take and every bit of praise that we could ever bestow upon you, and even more than that, infinitely more than that. So, Lord, would you remind us that that is the God that we serve, that that is the name that we worship, that no matter how much we— no matter how much we sing, no matter how much we give, that you're still worth it, that you're still worth even more than that. So Lord, we thank you that you abide with us, that you accept the mere sacrifices that we do give you, because they don't measure up to your glory, they don't measure up to your infinite worth. And would you just let that worth weigh upon our our hearts this morning as we sit in all of your glory and your grace and your power and love. We thank you for all these things, and in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Before you're seated, could you take a moment and just greet each other?

I'm sweating.

Really? Dang, that's a first.

I need to fix that.

Uh, the guitar was super clipping.

What was it? Yeah, I think Forrester adjusted the gain on it.

I can never hear if they're singing or not. For that last song, guitar got very loud.

I can tell.

Did you hear it? I can tell.

Oh my gosh, this is like sitting at a timpani stool. Oh yeah.

Hey, I got the timing for the bridge right though. That was a— that was very nice. Got it. Yeah, I got it.

Yay! Oh, he did the triplet. Oh, not the triplet.

He got the triplet. That's not me, that's him. Wow.

Hello.

Nope. Hello. Hello. Hello, hello everyone. I was asked to do the personal sharing, so I'm just gonna take briefly some of your time to share a bit more about myself. So first of all, I'm Brandon. I'm a senior in high school, and as a senior, I've been feeling a little more scared than usual, especially in thinking about my future. So That would look like thinking about how to narrow my interests into a major in college, meeting new people with, you know, a more extensive variety of ideologies, beliefs, and opinions, and lastly, managing my freedom, my faith, my fitness, and my finance more wisely. And needless to say, I'll be away from my family, I'll be away from this church, and so So definitely going to a community that is sort of anxiety-inducing, to say the least. But with all of these challenges, recently God has appeared in my life in unexpected ways, and I wanted to share a little bit about that. Um, since I struggle with incorporating my school life and my faith, oftentimes I find it usually that I would come like sort of separate the two, even if, even if I try not to. And so God has appeared in unexpected ways through my school life especially. And so I want to share just two things. First is through my poetry class. God has appeared there and in very unexpected ways. First, I was fortunate enough to have stumbled across the English poet poet John Milton, who was a theologian and also a poet in the 17th century. And there was a poem that I read in class that talked about his struggles with blindness and how he would be able to serve God as he become more blind. And I have a quote here that says, God doth not need either man's work or his own gifts Who best bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. And that was definitely unexpected. I did not expect, um, you know, to be reading about some theologian or some about Christianity in my class, um, because I would say my school was more progressive and also sort of anti-religion a little bit. And so that was a reminder that God's grace is the one sustaining me right now, and it's by God's grace that I'm here, not by my own works. And so in turn, I need to be more patient and more obedient in serving God rather than serving my worldly achievement. And so that was poetry class. The second one was through my Latin class. God appeared there and talked to me there as well. I had the privilege of reading and studying Pliny the Younger's account of the Christian faith in the first century. He was a governor in Bithynia, and he encountered a bunch of Christians that he didn't know what to do with them because the Roman Empire did not like Christians. The Christians were worshiping in secret places, and they were very suspicious of that. And so reading them and translating the Latin into English, I learned that I learned more about the Christian faith and it really inspired me. For example, Christians, when they were persecuted in the Roman Empire, Pliny the Younger, he was the governor, he would take Christians into like an executing place and he would make them and ask them 3 times whether they would bow down and kneel down and worship these like emperor busts. And 3 times the Christians would deny that. That. And so that was really inspiring because reading the firsthand accounts of these Christians and their— especially these first and second century Christians, believers— in their unwavering faith really struck to me because, um, they were under like probably the most dangerous like persecution ever. And here I was, you know, sort of lacking in my faith, you know, when I encounter some sort of homework or test. See, like, that was a convicting thought, and it really inspired me to sort of imitate more of that strong faith. And so to conclude all of my thoughts today, as I tackle the rest of the months of my fleeting youth, God has been reminding me that he is unchanging. He's the one thing that's constant. Constant, um, that, you know, I— when I go to college, he's the one thing that's constant. He's unchanging, and he will always remain faithful. And lastly, if God has appeared in places that, you know, I wouldn't have expected, especially in my school life, um, he would appear in even more places unexpectedly, um, as I head on to college. So thank you.

So we're going to move into the scripture reading. If you'll bring up the passages that come out of Matthew chapter 13. And the first one comes is Matthew chapter 13, verses 3 through 9. Then he told them many things in parables, saying, a farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, Some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell in the rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow, but when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among the thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop, a hundred 60 or 30 times what was shown— sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear. And from verses 19 through 23: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a yielding 100, 60, or 30 times what was sown. Right, thank you.

I just love parables, and I think it's partly because I find parables stimulate the imagination. And I just, going all the way back to my childhood, Childhood, I used to love to just daydream. Does anybody else like to daydream? I specifically had a lot of practice daydreaming because my parents put me to bed right after dinner. 7:15 was my bedtime when I was in elementary school. And of course, I wasn't tired. But I guess they wanted to, you know, get me out of their way or something. Anyway, 7:15, I would be sitting and staring at the ceiling. Well, I would analyze every little, little hole in the ceiling and every little crack, and I would just dream and dream and dream. So I love parables because they're so open-ended. They're inspirational, and also they're aspirational. Do you know what I mean by aspirational? They're forward-looking. They're not putting us in a box. They're giving us a direction where we can go. So we're going to talk about the power of parables, or what is so great about them. And we're going to see that parables are— Jesus likes parables. I'm not the only one. And really, he's kind of condensing a lot of this Old Testament truth into these parables that instead of giving you all the details, but if you go to the whole Bible, really the whole Bible, as we're going to see, is one parable after another. But the real history that also could be understood as parable. And we're going to see 3 main characteristics of parables. The first is that they're piercing— they pierce right through to the heart. Secondly, that they're purposeful— they have a reason for being there, a purpose that they want to accomplish in us. And third, they want to lay out a promise for us, as I was saying, where we can move forward. So when I say piercing, I'm thinking of this verse in Hebrews where it says that the word of God is alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. We'll see in these stories that these characters, the way they're laid out, it looks right through us as if we have no clothes or our fig leaf isn't hiding anything. Now we all know the Bible's been a bestseller throughout all of history, really all the bookselling history. And you'd say, why is it— is that the case? Is it because the book is about God? Well, that's part of the reason, but also the Bible is about you and me. It's about us, and we see this when it pierces our heart. And secondly, when I think of the purpose In that same chapter of Hebrews, the author goes on to say, "Let us draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." And what we're going to see is that in a parable there is built-in repentance or opportunity for repentance or instruction in repentance that brings us along towards the throne of grace to understand and receive mercy mercy and grace. And so when we're naked and not ashamed, we can get some covering and we can experience the intimacy just like Adam and Eve. They had in the garden, we experience with God. And in terms of the promise of the parables, I'm thinking of Psalm 1, which we'll look at again in a moment, where it says, blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates. He meditates day and night. So here's those daydreams I was telling you about. The application of these parables is fluid. It'll be new every day. And just now we heard Don talking about from his experience as a farmer, when he reads this he's thinking about, okay, next season I go out, I gotta reserve some of my seed, and next season I'm gonna go out and plant some more. But today in preparing for today, I didn't think at all about that. Application, how we're also to be sowers. I'm only thinking about how we're to be receivers. So next week maybe we should get Don up here to do a whole new message on this very same parable, and it could be completely nothing overlapping. That is how amazing— as we meditate day and night, we will find the promise of more and more receiving from God, fruitfulness. In Chinese, they have these things they call "chang yi." They take these whole stories and they whittle it down to 4 characters. So you could say these parables are kind of like the 4-character version, this whole truth that we have in the Word. So today's parable, we just heard it read, talks about 4— a sower went out to sow and the seed landed in 4 different places. But the first thing we want to notice is that the sower went out to sow. The soil didn't come and grab the seed. So the sower made the first move. And as we saw, the sower is the Lord, or is the one that's taking the initiative. And we can see that he's doing the same kind of seed all over the place. He's very generous. He's not doing one kind of seed for this kind of soil, another kind of seed for that kind of soil. Seed for that kind of soil. And we'll see that it's good seed, but you don't find out right away how good it is because of where it lands. And so the difference between the first, second, third, fourth isn't so much in the seed or the sower, is it? It's in how we receive, how we react, or what kind of heart the seed is falling on. Is it hard soil or a hardened heart, or does the soil that has that has a little bit of room to grow, but no roots can get down deep? Or is it the kind of soil that gets choked out with other, all the weeds, and therefore no fruit? But finally we get to the fourth good soil, and we find out what this grain was really all about. Sometimes, you know, if you go, if you're not into, if you're not a farmer and you go to the store where they sell seeds, seeds, and you know, they got the long skinny seeds and the round seeds and the big seeds and the pear-shaped seeds, the lima bean-shaped seeds. You can't tell which is which, right? I mean, you don't know until you look at the sign that says these are tomato seeds before you know what kind of seed it is. And so here we find even in the kingdom, the word of the kingdom, we don't know what it's supposed to really be like until we see the fruit. And that's why they sometimes say you can't be a solo Christian. Have you ever heard of that. We have to be able to see the fruit in each other or other people in the body, then we'll understand what that grain is supposed to look like. All right, so then at the end of the parable, Jesus says, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Now, I don't think it's because people were deaf. I don't think they had a lot of deaf people using sign language. That wasn't the issue. It's that people that were hearing what he had to say, but it wasn't They weren't listening or paying attention. They didn't care. And he said, look, if you care to listen, then it's for you. If you don't care, then that's your problem. We're responsible to figure out what it means. He doesn't explain it in the first go. Did you notice that Don read two sections, the same parable, you could say, with two— first was the bare bones, and then the second time it was in response to the disciples asking him afterwards, when they were privately, he said, hey, they asked, what does that mean? And it's like we're told, you know, ask and you shall find, seek, you know, knock and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened. And this is what they did. So they asked Jesus, what does this mean? So he explained. So the second time around that we also— Don read for us— he explains that there's hard soil. Those are the people who just don't understand They get the word of the kingdom, but they don't understand, and therefore it can't get any root at all. But those with the rocky soil are the ones that do understand, but they can't handle the tribulation or persecution. I'm gonna call this the, the pressures. So like Brandon was saying, like maybe he learned in school, or he learned— excuse me— he learned at church all about God. God, but then when he got to school, if no one in his school, all of his peers, nobody is a believer, that's going to change, perhaps change the way that he relates to them, and maybe he wouldn't be able to hold on to that faith in that environment. So we have people who don't understand, people who get too much troubles or pressures, and then this third kind is those for whom the cares of the world, deceitfulness of riches choke the word. And I've wrapped this up. I'm gonna call this the desires. Because of pleasures or desires, it leads us away. So we've already heard, we already understood, we got some roots, but we still are facing these other desires. So we're, we're not able to be fruitful because of this little competition that's going in our mind. And finally, this good soil, it bears fruit and it yields Yields. In one case, 100-fold, 60-fold, or 30-fold. Now, 30-fold, 100-fold, that's a big return on investment. And if you know that agriculture is a great— can be a very high, very profitable business when it works. Of course, when it's going good for you, it's usually doing good for the farmer down the road, and then everybody's prices go down, and so they— They can't get too rich being a farmer, so that's like a self-regulating. Anyway, this is the 4 types of soil. So if we look at it, kind of summarize these 4 categories, those who don't understand, those who understand but bow to the pressures, those who understand but follow pleasures instead, and then those who listen and respond. Okay, so if we were in a classroom, I'd say, now it's your turn. I'm going to ask you the questions. Now it's not convenient for you to all yell out your answers at once, so you can keep it to yourself. But I want you to think for a moment as we're discussing these four, where do you put yourself? A column, you know, door number one, door number two, door number three, or door number four. Where are you? How are you receiving the words of God's kingdom. Now I know some of you probably know exactly where you stand, and some of you, "Well, yesterday I was there, but today I'm there. Oh, but Wednesday I was way over there, but on Thursday I was over there again." Now, good news is you're here, right? So you wouldn't be here if you're— probably if you're off the map. So you're, you're on the map. That's the good news. But what we'll see towards the end is that some— we could kind of move around a little bit. So when Jesus is speaking, he's kind of bringing this new message to this new audience, so they have like their first impression. But then as time goes on, if you didn't understand this time, maybe you'll understand next time. Or if you better to pressure this time, maybe you won't next time. So let's go to— so let's— I just want to pray for a moment before we go on. Father, help us to understand where do we stand. Help us understand that we do have responsibility in this whole life, not just to be hearers of the word, but to be doers. So pray that you show us how. So now let's move to a parable in the Old Testament. New Testament. Now there's only a small handful, but this is by far the most famous where a parable is used to get repentance out of King David. And you probably all know the story when it begins when David is king. He used to be the general, right, of the army. He became king. He went out in a few of the battles, but finally his men said, "Don't come with us anymore." So David stayed home and the men went out to battle. Well, while he's at home, he doesn't have much to do, so he's looking out from his palace door over down the hill, and you could see all the houses down there. And what, lo and behold, there is a young lady called Bathsheba bathing on one of the roofs. And when he sees her, he asks one of the guards, "Who is that?" And he decides to invite her over. And lo and behold, I don't know how it happened, She got pregnant. Well, David had a problem. So what did he do? He hurry up, invite Uriah back from the field. Because Uriah was out in with the other army men. Did I say Uriah? This woman Bathsheba's husband was one of the soldiers named Uriah. So he said, let's get Uriah off the battlefield and we'll have him over for a few days. Have him give us a report on how things are going and send him home to his wife for a few days. And why did he want to do that? That would cover up, right? What if there is a child born to Bathsheba? Everyone will assume it was Uriah's baby, and of course Uriah will assume it was Uriah's baby until maybe 20 years later when it was too late. So the problem was when he got home and he gave the report, Uriah Uriah refused to go down to his wife's home, and he camped out right at the door of the palace. And David said, "What are you doing? How come you're not going home?" He said, "How could I go home to my wife when my colleagues, my soldier buddies are out in the field? I'll not do that." And so David is frustrated again. So then the next day, what is David going to do? He plies him with alcohol. He thinks if Uriah is drunk enough, he'll go down to his wife. Well, didn't work. He still wouldn't go down. So the next day, finally, after he gave up, and David wrote a note to the general on the field, and he sealed it with the wax. And he said this note, when the General Joab opened it up, it says, "Put Uriah on the front lines of the army, attack the enemy, and then withdraw." and leave him there hanging so that he'll die. And Uriah took that sealed letter and took his own— that letter which was condemning him to death, took it to his boss, never opened it up. And sure enough, that's what happened and Uriah died. And that moment where David passes the note to Uriah, which is essentially the note of murder, is painted in multiple paintings. I was looking for which one of these is the best. And in this one, you can see on his face, he's a little bit not feeling too good about this. And there's this other guy in the picture. He's like, hmm, I wonder if he knew what was going on. And here's one more, the sealed letter that Uriah would take and that he would die by it. Well, that's— none of that's the parable. The parable starts months later when the prophet Nathan goes to visit David, and God has given him a message to speak. Now, Nathan could have said, "God knows what you did, and you are guilty." He could have just come right out and spilled the beans. That would have been a little harsh, but do you think it would have worked? Could have spoken the message clearly enough, What would David have done? He might not have reacted very well. He could have gotten a little bit maybe angry and who knows what he would have done with Nathan. So instead, this parable is a very gentle approach and Nathan says to the king, he says, "There were two men in one city, a rich man with many flocks and herds, and a poor man who had nothing except one little lamb." And the poor man had nourished up that little lamb and had slept in his house. It was like a daughter to him. One day, a traveler visited the rich man, but rather than take one of his own sheep for dinner, he took the poor man's lamb, killed it, and served it to his guest. Now, when he told this story, David immediately He didn't have his guard up, right? He immediately said, "That man is worthy of death. He deserves to die." And Nathan said, "You are the man." And as soon as David heard that, what could he say? He knew he was caught. So what choice does he have now? He can repent, or I guess he could still fight off Nathan and try to throw him off the balcony and kill him so nobody else will know. And David says, "I have sinned against the Lord." And this is how the Bible lays out the story for us, and then he leaves it up to us. Are we going to react like David did? And confess that we have sinned against the Lord, or are we going to still try to hide it or cover up like the king previously, like Saul did when he was wrong? And fortunately, we have an excellent poem. Speaking of Brandon's poetry class, you could take Psalm 51 to your poetry class, see if they like it. This is an excellent song about repentance. Sentence where David writes Psalm 51 in response to this whole incident where he's done the adultery and the murder and now he's been caught. And this is just part of it. He says to God, he says, "Hide your face from my sins. Blot out my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence. Take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. And he just lays it all out there. And Nathan says, the Lord also has put away your sin and you shall not die. And just as David is forgiven, he seeks mercy of God and he receives it. We can also receive mercy from God. But there are consequences. And Nathan says to David, because of what you have done, even though you are forgiven, that son born to Bathsheba will die. And it would be better if he had not sinned in the first place. It's better for us if we spend more time on this side of that spectrum and less time— it's best to not sin in the first place. And so each time you lose an opportunity, it's just a loss to opportunity. But like Don said, there's always next year, the next season. And so we want to do what John the Baptist said, which is to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. So you see these arrows I have? So it's like if we start out confused but we repent, or we are able to, to learn something, we can move along this— kind of like moving along the line here. And if we repent of the pressures that we gave into, then we can move forward. If we repent of the pleasures that we gave into, we can move forward. And sometimes we'll move in the wrong direction. And it could happen, you know, sometimes it could happen very suddenly. But this— so I want us to see this as something we can move around. It's not too late. These aren't exactly precise stages, but we can find ourselves moving forward. And even in this last stage, where it says we could be fruitful 30-fold, 60-fold, 100-fold. So even if we think, oh, we're pretty, we're fruitful, well, are you 30 or 60 or— there's more room to even grow and improve there. That's what it says, aspirational. So I'm trying to picture that by making the crops in the pictures get bigger and bigger. So that is the That's the purpose of many of the parables is so that we can be revealed. Our heart is now revealed and it gives us a chance to change. Now the last one I was saying is a promising parable. It's not exactly a parable, it's more like a simile or figurative language coming from Psalm 1. So let's go to Psalm 1 where in verse 1 it says, Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path the path of the sinner, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord. Now, I can remember reading this many years ago and said, "What is delightful about the law?" You know, it says, "Thou shalt not do this and thou shalt not do that." I mean, that's not very delightful. But what is he meditating on? It's the word law, as you know, some of you heard Torah, Torah, not the Japanese war battle cry. But the Hebrew word Torah is talking about the whole first 5 books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, or the books of Moses. So all those stories in Genesis, all the stories in Exodus, those are the things that he's meditating on and seeing how they might apply to his life. So this is the— his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. So he's meditating on the stories. And these stories, as I was saying, they're like— the Old Testament stories are like parables. They're historical and they have that— they're so full of meaning that their meaning as a parable is even more powerful than their meaning as history. It's so much so that some philosophers, they say, you know, it doesn't matter if it's true. I think it's a great story. There's people who are not believers who will study the Bible even though they don't believe it's true just for the parable value. Do you follow me? But I think it has to be true that, for example, the story of Jonah we'll see in 2 weeks' time. I'll be covering a chapter in Matthew where he talks about the sign of Jonah and how Jesus— the proof, one of the proofs of Jesus' resurrection is this sign of Jonah. Well, obviously he's understanding the sign of the story of Jonah in a figurative or like a parable-like way. And so that's what I think David is doing in Psalm 1. So what is the promise? Well, he says, as we meditate day and night, what will be blessed? But what does blessing look like? He said he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. So I was looking for a tree in Israel. I wanted a tree in Israel. So I, you know, it's great, Google's pretty awesome, isn't it? You just say bountiful tree Israel Paul Condrell, whatever, and there it is. And there were other ones too, but this is one particular tree that's growing planted by the water. If you ever go to an arid climate, or like Arizona or places that are dry, and you see suddenly you'll see a bunch of trees in a line, and it's because there's like a drainage ditch or a little river or a pond water there. So it's very, very marked. And it goes on to say, "That brings forth its fruit in its season." So he'll— she shall be like a tree planted by the waters that brings forth its fruit in its season. And not all these grow on trees, of course, but some of them do. "Whose leaf also shall not wither." And this is another picture from Israel of leaves that are green and prospering. So this is again a picture, a poem, poetic picture of the promise that we have in this way that we grow. And whatsoever he does shall prosper. So if you understand the Bible is a parable, we can go on learning from it for a lifetime. It's penetrating our heart. It's giving us a purpose, moving us along the line as we meditate, grow faithful and strong. So here we are. As we meditate on the word, we can think of these categories and how are we doing. If— are we feeling confused? It's not necessarily a direct line. You can kind of move from here to there and there and then back around. As we meditate, we can— I hope this will help us to navigate navigate through these trials or testing that we go through. So let me finish with prayer and say, Father, we're thankful for your word, whether it's parable or any other form, that it's so interesting, it's so unique and so stunning. The stories are so full of shocking And so, and therefore very memorable. But Father, I pray that as we learn stories like of David and Nathan, I pray that we remember them and that they will come to mind, that your Spirit can bring them to mind when we face different situations. So that we, as we do that, we know that your Spirit is with us and that means you are with us. You know, sometimes it's a fearful thing to come face to face with our own failings. And I pray, Father, that we have confidence in your mercy because your promise and because how Jesus Christ went all the way to the cross for that very purpose, to demonstrate that he He wants us to come to Him to be forgiven, to receive the covenant in His blood. We're like the woman that was caught in adultery, and He said, "Nor do I condemn you." So we know that You won't condemn us if we will just draw near to You and put our faith in You. I pray these things in Jesus' name. In Jesus' name, amen.

All right, could you all please rise and join us? Sing Falling on My Knees.

Falling on my knees in worship, giving all I am to seek your face. Lord, all I am is yours. My whole life I place in your hands, God of mercy. Humbled, I bow down in your presence, at your throne. I called, you answered, and you came to my rescue, and I, I wanna be where you are.

My whole life.

My whole life I place in your hands, God of mercy. Humbled, I bow down in your presence. At your Your throne. And I called, you answered.

And you came to my rescue, and I wanna be where you are.

Oh, you answered and you came to my rescue, and I, I wanna be where you are.

Sing in my life.

Life. Be lifted high in our world. Be lifted high in our love. Be lifted high, high, Lord, high, oh, in my life. Be lifted high in our world. Be lifted high in our love. Be lifted high. One more time, in my life. In my life. Be lifted high in our world. Me liftin' high in our love. Me liftin' high.

And I called, you answered. And you came to my rescue. Rescue, and I, I want to be where you are. And I called, you answered, and you came to my rescue, and I wanna be where you are.

Home. You may be seated.

Thank you, Paul, and thank you, Jonathan and company, for that song to finish up the worship. Just a few announcements I'd like to make, and if you don't know where we keep our bulletins, they're at em.wcc.church. You can go online. We have quite a few bulletins there, so you might have to scroll down to get to today's. If you're using your phone, it might not be so obvious, but if you're on a computer, you can easily see the bulletin and get more details. But if there's any visitors here, we would like to give you a gift. And so if you'd raise your hands, we'll get that to you. If not, we can go to the next slide. We have several opportunities for fellowship, and I would just like to point out a few. For mothers of young children, we have Momco. That'll be this coming Tuesday at 6:00 PM. Salt and Light Fellowship fellowship on March 8th. And also on the 8th, there's some special thing because I think in Chinese 3/8 is something special for women. But anyway, it's a time of fellowship for ladies on March 8th at 10:30 to 12:30. They call it a brunch. So that's all I have for announcements. Oh, finally, we are taking pictures for the website, and you'll get a chance to review them if you're in a picture. Picture. And so I just want you to be aware that when people are photographing, that that is what we're doing right now to try to enhance our website. So that's it for announcements. If you would go ahead and please stand for doxology.

Praise God from heaven.

Whom all blessings flow. Praise him, all creatures here below. Praise him above the heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Standing for the benediction, also praising God from Psalm 150. Praise the Lord, praise God in his sanctuary, praise him in his mighty heavens, praise him for his mighty deeds, and praise him according according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp. Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe. Praise him with sounding cymbals, and praise him with loud clashing cymbals. Let everything that has breath praise Praise the Lord. Thank you for coming.

What was the problem? Oh, yeah.

Yeah. I'm trying to understand.