The Parable of the Soils

Today I'm going to talk about something. When I tell you what I'm going to talk about, you may think, I've heard it all before. I don't have to hear it again. I know everything that I know about this. And to tell you the truth, when the thought came into my mind about what to talk about today, I kind of felt the same way. Why would I make a sermon out of that? And why is that in my mind? It's not anything I'd been thinking of. But I decided to go ahead, as you often do, and just study it the way God leads you to do it. And I found and I learned some things about this well-known subject we'll talk about that I hadn't realized before, and it made it come alive for me. You know, in Matthew 13, Jesus Christ gave seven parables that really talked about the kingdom of God. And he talked about what our life would be like, and what the church's life would be like, and the people that he would call, and what would happen between that time and the time of his return. And in those parables, he talks about the kingdom of God. And each one of them is a little different. They all kind of tie together. But when you look at those parables, and you relate it to what we have gone through today and what we've seen today, you can see exactly what he is doing and what he has been doing from that time till now, and will continue to do until the end of the age. I'm not going to talk about all seven parables today, but I'm going to talk about one, the very first one, because there's a reason he gave this first one. And in Matthew 13, we find it.

We know it maybe as the parable of the sower and the seed. I'm going to suggest that maybe there's a different title that we can put on that today when we're done with it. Let me just read through the first several verses here of Matthew 13. So you get the flavor of what we're going to talk about, and then we'll go back and we'll look at each one of these things that Jesus Christ talked about, and see how it all ties together in the Bible, in our lives, and how that all applies to all of us.

And I'll preface it by saying every single one in this room, every single person listening on the web, every single person who will ever, who will ever listen to this sermon, in any means or whatever, these verses apply to every single one of them, just like they applied to the disciples and the people that Jesus Christ spoke to that day. Matthew 13 verse 1 says, And the disciples came and said to him, why do you speak to them in parables? And he answered and said, Because it's been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it hasn't been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance, but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing, they don't see, and hearing they don't hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Israel is fulfilled which says, Hearing you will hear, and shall not understand, and seeing you will see, and not perceive. For the hearts of this people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing. That was a warning to Israel today, but it's a warning and perhaps a statement on God's people today too. Don't let our ears grow dull of hearing. And as he goes on, don't let your eyes be closed. It's not God who closes our eyes, it's us. It's not God who blocks our hearing, it's us. And their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their ears and hear with their ears, or see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them. But blessed, he speaks to everyone listening this day, blessed are your eyes, for they see. And your ears, for they hear. For assuredly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and they didn't see it. And they desired to hear what you hear, and they didn't hear it.

And then he goes on and he explains the parable of the sower to them, so that they could understand what he was saying. The multitudes that heard it that day, they heard, they got it, they got the physical properties and the physical definitions that he was talking about here, but they didn't get what was going on and how it applied into their lives. He wanted his disciples to understand, and they did when he explained. Now this is maybe one of maybe the most well-liked, I guess, or favorite parable of people.

It's one that everyone has heard of, whether we're in the church or not. The parable of the soils, we can call it, because the parable is not so much about the sower and seed, because the sower and the seed in this first parable are constant. You know, we don't have to guess who the sower is. The Bible tells us. So many times the Bible tells us exactly what it's talking about. We just don't see it right in that verse. But here at the end of chapter 13, down in verse 37, I guess it's more in the middle of the chapter, we find out who exactly the sower is.

So we don't have to question who that is after he talks about the parable of the wheat and the tares. In verse 37, it says, Christ answered and said to them, He who sows the good seed is the son of man. So we have our answer on that. Jesus Christ is the one who sows the seed. He's a constant good. Throughout all four of these situations and soils that we talk about here, Jesus Christ is constantly good.

He's the constant. We don't have to talk about Him. We know what He does is perfect. The seed is also good. You know, if we go over into verse 19, where Jesus Christ begins explaining the parable to the disciples, He tells us what the seed is. In verse 19, He says, When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and doesn't understand it, and then He goes on with the rest of the verse.

So the seed is the word of the kingdom. That's what He is sowing. That's what He sends out there. And as we read in verse 4, you know, the sower went out to sow verse 3, and as He sowed, some seed fell by the wayside. Now most of you, even though we're not farmers, we kind of understand what farming is, and we understand that when you sow seed, not every seed that you plant is going to end up in a plant, right? I mean, farmers sow millions of seeds, but they don't get millions of plants that grow. Things happen to them. You know, if every seed that was on earth turned into a plant or something, we would be constantly chopping down things just to get from one place to another.

And every morning, part of what I eat in the morning is some seeds. And I look at this bag of pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds, and I think, man, how many pumpkins will there be in the world that these many seeds come? I never see a pumpkin patch, you know? I never see a sunflower patch.

I know where they're supposed to grow, but that many seeds, and I'm eating them, and there's that many more seeds that are turning into little pumpkin plants producing more seeds and everything. There are seeds everywhere, and seeds themselves are miracles, if you will. Now, we have some who are in high school and college here, and they can probably expand on my science a little bit here, but let me refresh your memory on what seeds are.

When we look at a seed, you know, what we see is just this little thing. Just this little thing. It has an outer casing, and it kind of protects everything on the inside of it, the embryo, where really the life is, because there is life in seed. And when that, and as long as that protective coating is on there, that seed remains viable. It can stay viable for years. Some reports are that when they have dug up some mummies, and they've seen bags of seeds in those mummies thousands of years later, they've planted them, and they've grown.

That's just how protected God made those little seeds that are there. Jesus Christ sowed seeds. When He said He was sowing seeds, He was sowing life. When people, when they hear it, and the people in this first section here, they're all called. They're all receiving seed. It's not an accident that people hear the truth. It's not an accident that they may tune into the web and hear us because they're looking for something, and God has opened their mind to see it.

Everyone in these four soils that we're going to talk about, they've been called. It's what do they do about the calling? We know the seed is good. We know the sower is good. And I didn't finish my analogy with the seed, but when you have a seed, what happens with it is when it gets mixed with water and soil, that outer, that outer coating disappears. And what is released from the inside is what turns into the plant that produces a tree, produces fruit, produces wheat, whatever it is. Some 100-fold, some very fruitful plants from this little tiny seed.

Some people would say that the seed has to die in order for the plant to grow.

Jesus Christ built a lot into this. And the people back then who were probably more familiar with seeds and planting than we are, got what he was talking about when he used the analogy. And we learn over and over again what we see in the earth around us is a picture of our spiritual lives. The more we learn about the earth and what God has planned and what he's made just part of our everyday life that we so often just take for granted and pass right over, it has a spiritual lesson for us. Back in John 12, Jesus Christ references this concept of the seeds. In John 12 in verse 23, as he's preparing for the Passover, he's talking about his death to the disciples. In verse 23 of John 12, he says this. It says, Jesus answered then and then said, The hour has come that the son of man should be glorified. He's going to die. And then he says this in verse 24, Most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. It stays unfruitful. It never produces anything. Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. Now you can contemplate that, and you can see the analogy because in the very next verse, Jesus Christ says this when he's talking about him dying. And when he dies and this body is shed, the fruit that he will produce. And he speaks to us in verse 25, He who loves his life, he who loves his life, he who clings to this life will lose it. And he who hates his life, he who is willing to give it up in this world, will keep it for eternal life.

The seed, in order to germinate, would die. That's why when you pull up a pant by its roots, you don't see the little seed there at the bottom. The seed has disappeared. Once it germinates and once it grows, the seed just dies. It's there, now part of the root system. And Jesus Christ said, I'm sowing seeds. I'm sowing seeds to everyone who knows the truth. Everyone who wanders into a website, everyone who wanders in to ucg.org, everyone who wanders onto a telecast, just like you and I wandered into something. And we learned the truth, and it opened our minds. We knew there was truth there. It was there. It was Jesus Christ sowing the seed. In Matthew 22, verse 14, it says, many, many are called, many are called. Emphasis on many. Millions and millions called, but only a few are chosen. And we find that as we go through this first parable that Jesus Christ had said. Now let me give you a few statistics from the worldwide work to supplement what's going on locally here. You know, we have a website, ucg.org, that is a very active website. When you look at the Alexa ratings, which is how it reads, you know, the number of people that are looking at a website. And when you look at just the Christian categories, which can be any definition, right, our website ranks anywhere from 12th in the world down to 20th in the world, depending on the month you look at it. Now for a church our size, that's pretty impressive. We're talking about Catholics, we're talking about Mormons, we're talking about all the big religions with all the money they put into it, and our website ranks that high. On any given year, we have eight million unique visitors to that website. That's eight million. They don't find it accidentally. It's there drawn there for a reason, but eight million different people access that website each year. Every year, or every month, every month we add into our databases of the home office 10,000 brand new names. 10,000 people who have requested a booklet, who have requested a magazine, or have made contact with us in something to request something. 10,000 new names. You can pretty much, you know, set your clock by it. So every year, and some months it's more than others, but every year we add about 150,000 total new names into our database. So when I asked them this month, tell me how many names do we have in our database now? It's over two million. Two million that are sitting there in our database. So sometimes we could look around and say, where are all these people? Sometimes we ask that question. We're in our budget season now and talking about strategy, and it's like, where, if we have all these people, you know, the gospel is going out, as you heard in the sermonette. The gospel is going out. We have all these people who are calling, the people who are asking for information. Where are they? The answer is in Matthew 13.1. Many are called, and few are chosen. The seed is going out there, but it falls by the wayside. It falls by the wayside. It's not falling on fertile ground. It's falling by the wayside, off on the pavement, you know, next to where we drive our cars, or in very, very where there's no soil at all. Now, what happens to that seed that has no soil around it, that has no, no ability for it to germinate and to lose itself and to die so that it can become something? In bird chapter, well, if we're back in Matthew 13, it tells us, the birds of the air, the birds of the air, came and devoured it. As he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured them.

Now, while the sower and the seed are constant and they're good, the parable is really about four different soils. We know Jesus Christ is constant. We know this the seed is constant, but the soil that it falls onto is dependent on you and me.

Dependent on you and me. God calls. God calls, but it's what we do. Where does that seed fall?

When people pick up the phone and call and say, I want this booklet. When people email and say, I want to subscribe to that magazine, but they never do anything with it and they don't renew their subscription. What is happening to the calling that God gave them? It's not being mixed with anything that allows that seed to germinate. Is that God's fault? He's giving them the opportunity, but they're doing nothing with it. They're letting it just sit there. They're not counting it for what it's worth. Hearing they hear, but they don't perceive it and they don't grasp it and they don't get the significance of it and the importance of it. And so the birds come and devour them away.

Now birds, when you look here in this scripture, birds have an interesting symbolism in the Bible as well. If we look over in verse 19, where Christ is beginning to explain this first part of the four soils, in verse 19 it says, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and doesn't understand it, and we'll see a little bit later from the amplified version, it translates, understand as they don't grasp it, they don't comprehend it, they don't get the value of what's been given to them. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and doesn't grasp it or comprehend it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.

So he correlates the wicked one. You know who the wicked one is, right? The wicked one correlates to the birds that just come by and they take that seed that's just laying there and no one is doing anything with it, they snap it up and devour it. In Mark, when he recounts this parable, he actually uses the word, the name Satan. Luke says the devil, or maybe have those reversed, those reversed. It's Satan who snatches those away. Now, when we read about birds in the Bible, we can go back and even in the Old Testament, there's some references to birds of the year. And in this context, certainly the birds of the air are not a good thing. The sower is good, the seed is good, the birds of the air are not. They take away the good seed. Let's go back to Deuteronomy 28. Deuteronomy 28.

Deuteronomy 28 is the blessing and cursing chapter, as we often call it. God says that if you follow, follow what I tell you to do, Israel, good things are going to happen. I will be with you, I will provide for you, I will watch over everything. But if you depart from me, if you leave me behind, if you don't do what I say, and then the rest of the chapter, the majority of the chapter, where he goes out and details what's going to happen. In verse 25, let's pick it up till we get the context here. He says this. Moses says he's recounting what God instructs him to tell Israel about what will happen. It says, the Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and you'll flee seven ways before them, and you will become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one will frighten them away. You'll die.

And what will devour you is the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and I'm not going to be there to frighten them away. That will be what comes of you. The birds of the air will devour you.

Not a good thing. Not a good thing. Your Bible probably has in the margin there next to that verse, 1 Samuel 7 verse 44. We don't have to turn to 1 Samuel 7. You can do that later. It's talking about David and Goliath, the story of David and Goliath. And in there, you remember, you got little David, young David, small David, if you will, compared to the giant Goliath. And Goliath is saying in verse 44, I'm going to defeat you and the birds of the air are going to devour your carcass.

Physically, that would be what happened, right? That the giant would defeat this young man who is going to be there. The birds of the air don't devour the righteous people. That didn't happen to David. David was there. God was there with him. And it was actually, actually, of course, Goliath who died. Birds of the air are not for righteous people. Birds of the air are for those who discount God and leave him behind and don't count as important the things that he counts important and that we should as well. If we go back to Revelation, we find birds of the air again at the very end of the Bible. You may have been thinking when I said birds of the air about Revelation 19 where Jesus Christ returns and he's going to slaughter all the armies that are gathered before him. And he says, your carcasses, your bodies will be food for the beasts, for the birds of the air. They will come and devour you. But one chapter earlier in chapter 18, he talks about the birds of the air as well and correlates those to what the birds of the air symbolize in the Bible. Revelation 18 and verse 1, after these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. Verse 2, and he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit and a cage for every unclean and hated bird. What are the birds? What are the birds that are snatching up the seed that fell by the wayside, where people didn't pay attention to it, didn't count it as important, didn't give it any room to grow, didn't let it sink in at all, but just kind of knew it was there, did something with it, did something with it one time, but just let it slide? It's Satan. It's Satan. It's the demons. And we find what Satan is like, because often when I counsel people for baptism, I remind them what Satan is like. We saw it in the physical as he attacked the children of Israel, as he attacked the young children of that Christ time. When God calls someone and he drops that seed on them, Satan and his demons are there to immediately statue it away. If they can get you while you're weak, if they can get you while you're young, if they can get you when you have no root, they'll do it. There's no easier prey than someone who's helpless or who's an infant who's just been called. And so all the seed goes out and thousands and thousands and thousands of people write in, thousands and thousands of people request, and we never hear anything from them again. Because something comes up or they just never let it take root. Satan was there to take it away the minute that it came on them, the minute that it came on them.

You know, one of the things that has bothered me since I've been a pastor, and it still does, but I know because I read the Bible, I understand that's just kind of the way the church is and the people God calls is, is when someone calls and they talk and you have a good conversation with them, and you know that they know, you know that God has called them, they understand what they're talking about. Most of the time they understand the Sabbath day, they know what they've been taught in the past is wrong, and they want to come to church. You know, I had, which has been the last few weeks, I've had two or three, you know, for this church that have called and, you know, I'll be there, I'll be there, and they sound excited and whatever, they found the website and this is what I've been looking for, and this is the truth, and I know that. I'll be there, what time are services, where are services, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, and I come on Sabbath and I think they're going to be there. You know what? They're not there. They're not there. And they're not there the next week, and they're not there the next week, and I scratched my head, and early on I thought, what am I saying? Something wrong on the phone? But as I understand, this is what God said would happen. Seed would be sown, but people wouldn't let it take root. The birds of the air will come and snatch it away as soon as it descends on the wayside, because they don't do anything with it. They allow whatever happens between Friday night when they call and say, when is services and I'll be there, whatever happens between then and 2.30 on that service time, something happens and it's snatched away, and rarely, if ever, do I hear from them again. It's mind-boggling to me, but it's Matthew 13, verse 4. It's the first soil. The seed is there. The seed is good, but somehow the birds of the air have snatched it away. Now, whatever there was to excite them and to open their senses, to open their eyes, to open their ears for that little bit has been taken away. Something interrupted it. So when we look at the first soil, we learn that, you know, it's something to do about us. We, when we receive the truth, we need to receive it with joy, but we need to make sure that our soil, our soil, what it's falling on, is such that it can have that seed live in it, that that seed can die and begin to blossom into the plant that God wants it to be, a fruitful, a fruitful plant. So I hope, you know, I don't know, you know, if we have someone here for the first time, I would encourage you to work on your soil. Don't be one of those, and people listening on the web and people listening to this sermon later, don't be one of those people that are here in the first soil of Matthew 13. Pay attention to what God has called you to. He has called you to the truth. That's why you're hearing this. And don't let it slip by the wayside, and don't let someone take away from you the very great gift that God has given you. So that's the first soil. Let's look at the second soil here in Matthew 13. Matthew 13 verse 5. It says, Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth, and they immediately sprang up, because they had no depth of earth. Verse 20, he explains it to his disciples this way, says, But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself.

Well, any of you who have gardened or have yards and whatever, you know, you've probably had parts of your yard where just nothing grows. You know, maybe it's very rocky, maybe it has a lot of not-good matter in it, but it seems like whatever you plant there, just something's done happened. You know, sometimes it's even the cracks in the driveways, right? I mean, there's something that comes out of your driveway and you think, wait, of all the places that has to spring up there, so I have to deal with it. But there's a little earth there, there's a little of something that's there, and that seed can find enough to just germinate, and it just pops out of the air, and it's there, and it gets attention, and you see it, but it never becomes a hardy plant. It's not a beautiful plant. It's not anything that just keeps growing and growing. It's just there, and it catches your attention because of where it is, and it shows up, and you see it.

But it's a sony ground. It's never going to be able to grow and thrive in that environment, in that place. Well, Jesus Christ says, there are some where the seed falls, and immediately they hear what is being said, and there's some soil there, and there that seed germinates, and it may result in people popping up and springing up. You know, sometimes people come to church, sometimes for once, sometimes for twice, and when they're here, they're very excited.

They talk about, they've been looking for this for a long time. They talk about, this is the place they want to be. Some stay until the very last ones, and they're the last ones to leave, and you think, you know, they get it. They get it. They're here, and most of the times those people don't call, don't email. I don't know their names ahead of time, but they're here, and you've met them, and you've met them in other places down through the years, just like I have. It happens in this church. It happens in Jacksonville. It happens in every single church around the world, but then the next week comes, and they're not there. Or maybe it's two weeks later, and they're not there.

It's like they popped up, and they're happy, and they want to be here, and this is where they need to be, but then nothing. You might call. No response. You might email if you have an email address. No response. And that used to bother me, and it still does bother me, and I pray for those people. When you come, when you are called, make your calling and election sure. Do the work you need to do. God's done His part, but we have our part to do. Our soil needs to be clear. Our soil needs not to be stony. We need to make sure that we are letting God's Word fall on good places, where it can grow, and where it can become, and we can become what God wants us to become.

But all too often, it's not. All too often, it's not. And probably if we were able to name everyone in the last seven years, since I've been here, that has come once or twice, or people that have called, you know, we probably have another congregation bigger than this congregation in the Orlando area. That just shows how much seed is sown, how much we know is out there, and our local Good Night Subscriber's list is over 2,500 people. They're not good news beyond Today Magazine. That many people are receiving it. And yet we have one congregation here in Orlando in this area, a very good-sized congregation, very good people that are here. But we can see what's happened, because some, it's the halls on stony ground. If we go on in verse 6, it talks about these little plants that are there, and it says in verse 6, when the sun was up, these little plants that spring up were scorched. And because they had no root, they weathered away. When the heat was turned up, however that heat is turned up, you know, in a Bible study a few weeks ago, we talked about Psalm 19, and we talked about, you know, the heavens declaring God's glory. And, well, keep your finger there in Matthew 13. Let's go back to Psalm 19. Psalm 19. And after David talks about the heavens declaring God's glory and how it speaks that language to everyone who listens, he goes into a section where he talks about the sun at the end of verse 4. And in verse 5, he likens it to the bridegroom coming out of his chamber, a strong man to run its race. And in verse 6, he says, it's rising. The sun's rising is from one end of heaven and its circuit to the other end, and there is nothing. There is nothing hidden from its heat. Nothing hidden from its heat. Those little plants, they feel the heat. And if they have no root, if they're not getting their moisture for something that's been planted in the ground, if they're there just sprung up in a very shallow system, you know what? They burn up. And the heat can come from any number of sources.

It can come from family members who say, really? You think the whole world is wrong, but you got the truth right on what day is the Sabbath that God wants you to keep? Can all these millions of people be wrong? It can come from bosses who say, what? Just go to church. I'll give you the afternoon off, but not the entire day. Wherever the heat comes from, it can come from kids who, I have to go to that soccer match. I have to go to that football field. Or whatever it is, that football game. Wherever it is, when the heat is turned up, the plant gets scorched.

Thank you.

Is that on? Nope, not on yet.

Okay, okay, now we're back on. Thank you. So that little plant gets scorched by wherever the heat comes from, and it can be a very minor place. In other cases, you know, it is a minor place.

Sometimes I watch patterns of people, and they may come for two or three times, and then, you know, something will come up. They've got something that has to be done on that Sabbath because it's a family occasion. And I've watched it, and all too many times, I see, once you interrupt the pattern of keeping the Sabbath, it's very difficult to get back on it. And those young people, it's like that little heat scorches them, and then you don't see them again. Or you may see them one more time, but something's happened, and they're no longer there, they're no longer the vital plant that they could become because it was on shallow soil. It never had time to root, and the heat, wherever that heat came from, scorched that plant. And the seed that was planted never turns into the plant that God wanted it to become. You know, he talks about, in verse 5 here, or in verse 6, because they had no root, because they had no root, they withered away. Now, a month or so ago, maybe six weeks ago, we talked about trees. Remember that? We talked about three types of trees that God compares His people to. Palm trees, cedars of Lebanon, olive trees. And two of those trees, we talked about the root systems extensively. We talked about how deep the cedars of Lebanon root system is. That is, as tall as you see that tree, the root system goes even deeper into the ground. Same thing with the olive trees. Those trees last for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. They can endure, and they can endure, and they can endure. They can go through windstorms, they can go through anything, heat, cold, and they survive, and they look better and better, and they grow, and they continue to produce fruit over and over again. They have a deep root system, and that root system isn't just by itself. That root system goes deep into the ground, but that root system, if you remember, is strengthened because it's intertwined with other olive trees, with other cedars of Lebanon. They get the strength from the ground and the soil that they're in, but they're strengthened by each other. And so they develop a root, and they develop strength, and they can last for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Because of this root system, and they can weather whatever heat comes their way, whatever storms come their way, whatever wind comes their way, no matter what, they can do that. But these young plants that grow up on stony ground, they never have a chance. The people never let it take root. They get scorched too soon. They let it burn up too soon, and pretty soon it withers and it dies, and it just fades away. It's a lesson to us that we need, we need to be grounded. We need to be rooted. We need to have our root in spural soil. And we make the choice of what type of soil God is going to sow that seed into. He'll give us the seed, but the rest is up to us. Is it going to fall by the wayside, and just be snatched up? Is it going to fall on stony ground, just to blossom for a little while and then be snatched away?

We have to develop our root systems with God and with each other. Let's go back to Ephesians 3. Ephesians 3.

Excuse me. Ephesians 3 and verse 14.

For this reason, Paul writes, this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, that's you and me and all of God's disciples and the people that he calls, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Verse 20. Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to him be glory in the church, by Christ Jesus, to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Firmly rooted and grounded in love, firmly rooted and grounded in God, and his word, firmly and rooted and grounded in the church, the body, the true church, the body through which he grows and develops people. One chapter over in chapter four. Verse 11. He himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying or the building up of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, a fully rooted, a fully mature Christian, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And he goes on in verse 14, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speak the truth in love. Rooded in fertile soil, in his word, in Jesus Christ, in the church that Jesus Christ began. Let's go back to Matthew, this time Matthew 16. In Matthew 16, when Jesus Christ is beginning his church, he preceded it with the parables of the kingdom of God that we've been talking about, the first one. And as he began in verse 16, you'll remember, Christ asks, Who am I? Who am I? Peter has the answer. God has revealed it to him. In verse 17 of chapter 16, Jesus answered and said to Peter, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock, the rock that is Jesus Christ, on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Haiti shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. I'll call. I'll give you the seed. I'll give you my spirit if you allow that seed to grow in you, and you respond to it the way that I hope you do, because I'm not willing that any of that seed would fall by the white side and just be gathered up and devoured by the birds. I want it all to germinate. I want it all to become major trees, fruitful trees. And I'll give you, Jesus Christ said to his church, I'll give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Firmly rooted. Firmly rooted. And as God calls us, let's be sure we root ourselves in the truth. Not just by ourselves, by sitting at home, but rooting ourselves in the environment that he wants us to be in.

And we know what type of people we need to become, right? Isaiah 66, verse 2 says, To this man will I look, who is of a humble and contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word. Trembles at my word. He's teachable. Matthew 18, a few chapters later, we talked about it last week, in 19, Jesus Christ taught the disciples, you got to be humble, you got to be teachable.

You got to throw out the old, yours has to die, and the new has to spring up and be there.

If you want to be in the kingdom of heaven and on this journey to the kingdom of heaven, we encounter many people. And God calls many people. Some, the birds snatch along the wayside, some of the seed falls on stony places and is there for a bit, but then it just fades away. The heat scorches it because it has no root and it just disappears.

So in Matthew 13, we find the third soil. In verse 7 it says, And some fell among thorns of the seed, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. Now you've seen gardens where there's been, there has been beautiful gardens, right? And if there's thorns among those gardens, it's very difficult to enjoy it. You know, where we used to live in Palm Coast, we had a bougainvillea tree in the back, and it had beautiful flowers and it would, it was beautiful, but I hated, I hated that tree because every time I had to go trim it, my hands became a bloody mess. And I thought, I don't care how beautiful it is, those thorns are not worth having it around. So, you know, thorns are not a good thing. Like the birds of the air, thorns are not a good thing in the Bible. They're really not of God. When we go back to the beginning of the Bible, you know, when we look at the Garden of Eden, there were no thorns in the Garden of Eden. It was a perfect creation, perfectly fertile soil, a perfect creation. When God looked around, He said, everything in it was good. And Adam and Lee have had the opportunity to live in that garden.

And when Satan came in the form of the serpent, they believed him. They believed him and decided, I want to do it my own way. I don't want to listen to what God has said. I want to do it my own way. I don't think that's that important, though, what God says makes no difference. I'll choose this. And then in chapter 3, at the end of chapter 3, we find God, after Anne made that decision, telling man what the rest of life was going to be like. It was no longer going to be the Garden of Eden. Life was going to be difficult. Eve was going to have trouble in childbearing. The serpent was going to crawl in its belly, and it was going to have a disreputation or a bad reputation among men. And in verse 17, he says this to Adam in Genesis 3. To Adam, he said, because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, you shall not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you will eat the herb of the field. You know, Adam, it's not going to be like it was anymore. Those thorns are going to be there. They're going to crop up, and they're going to make your life difficult. And if you don't keep control of them, you know what? They're going to weed out your fields. They're going to weed out your gardens. They're going to overtake everything that is there. Watch it, Adam, because now you're going to have to work harder. You're the one who invited this on yourself. You're going to deal with these thorns. Thorns in the Bible are not a good thing. If we go forward to Numbers 33.

Numbers 33, we can see, you know, kind of a common phrase that we might say today about thorns, and it's coined right here in the Bible. Numbers 33 and verse 55.

As Israel is preparing to go in and take over the Promised Land, God is cautioning them. When I tell you to get rid of the thorns, when I tell you to get rid of the inhabitants of the land, listen to me. Clear the landscape. Get the garden clear. Make sure that the soil that you're going to live on is pure soil. Numbers 33 and verse 55. He cautions them, Your life isn't going to be peaceful. You're going to have these little irritants that come up, these little thorns in your side that will crop up. It's your job, Israel. Clear the land of the thorns. It's your job, people of God. Clear the land of the thorns.

You want the irritants gone? Return to God. Look and see where He is and why those thorns may be there, and He will reveal them to you. Don't let them be thorns in your side. Matthew 7.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ talks about thorns here too. Matthew 7 and verse 16.

In verse 15, He cautions, He says, Beware of false prophets.

Beware of false prophets. Verse 16, You will know them by their fruits.

Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? No. If there's a pure fruit, there's a purer field to gather that fruit from, they'll gather it from there. They'll avoid the thorn bushes or figs from thistles. All too often, the fruit is gathered up and gobbled up by those thorns and those things that can spoil our field and spoil our fruit.

I won't turn to 2 Corinthians, but in 2 Corinthians 12, verses 7-9, you remember Paul. Paul talked about a thorn, a thorn that was with him for three years, a health problem that he had that was just kind of there. It was there and he had to deal with it, and he could have let it, he could have let it interrupt his life. He could have said, It's too hard to do this. Man, I just want to sit home and I want to nurse this little thing that I've got here and whatever. He never let it stop him. He kept working through the thorns. He kept working through those pains and those irritants and whatever it was that he was suffering with.

And you know, along the way, along the way, we have thorns come up, those little irritants, those little things that can crowd out the truth of God, that can crowd out our desire, that can crowd out our zeal, that can crowd out what our commitment is to God.

Maybe you were thinking of Matthew 27 when I mentioned thorns, because Jesus Christ himself had thorns as a part of his last day of his life, Matthew 27. And verse 27, as they arrested him, as they prosecuted him, as they condemned him, discouraging and then to death. In verse 27 of Matthew 27, it says, The soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the praetorium and gathered the whole garrison around him, and they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. And when they had twisted a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and a reed in his right hand, and they bowed the knee before him and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews. Thorns are not a good thing. Thorns are of Satan.

Thorns come and they can interrupt our lives. Thorns come, and for those in any of us sitting in this room, whether we've been coming for a month, six months, a year, 10 years, 20 years, 50 years, 60 years, any one of us can be in this group three of the soil with thorns or the last one that we'll talk about here in a few minutes. We're never exempt. We're never exempt until we die from what soil we allow the seed that God has planted to grow into. So any one of us here could fall prey to these thorns that grow up. There's a warning back in Hebrews 6. Let's look at Hebrews 6. Hebrews 6 and verse 4. And here in this warning, God inspired the thorn to show up here as well. Hebrews 6 and verse 4. It's impossible. It's impossible, the author writes, For those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put him to an open shame. For the earth which drinks in the rain, that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected, and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. Quite a warning there. Quite a warning there.

Thorns come up in our lives. You know, some thorns can be very painful. It can be any kind of problems and trials that we have come upon us. And they can distract us. Really, thorns can be anything that distracts us. It can be the pleasures of life. It can even be noble causes that we have. You know, I look back over people that I've known in the church, and there's noble causes, you know, in their minds, serving things that they do. And on the Sabbath, they're not with us. But they have this purpose. I have to do this, and I have to do that. And it's a noble purpose, but it's not the purpose that God gave for the Sabbath day. And as that thorn, which might look good, grows and grows and grows, all of a sudden they've lost it. That thorn chokes out the truth. That thorn chokes out what they are about, and no longer are they here.

And yet it looks so good. It looked like the right thing to do in their minds. But they weren't aware. It's a thorn. It's distracting from the truth of God. It's distracting from what you're supposed to be doing if you want to be in the kingdom of heaven. Thorns can be riches. They can be pleasure. They can be hardships. They can be trials. They can be even areas of service that we do. And think, God is happy with this because I'm serving in this way. No, if you're not aware where He wants you to be, when He says to be there, there's something that's not right. And there's something that you're not doing because God says if you're going to grow, if you're going to produce the fruit that I want when I sow this seed, you've got to do things the way I say it.

Don't lean on your own understanding. Don't rationalize. Don't reason among yourselves and yourself and think, that's okay. 1 John 2, verse 15. So many thorns can come up in our lives. You know, it's 1 John 2, verse 15. It says, don't love the world or anything in the world.

For the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. If that becomes our priority, if those thorns that come up in all of our lives come up, they can crowd out the truth of God.

They can make us and distract us to the point that we forget who we are and we become so consumed in whatever it is that interests us or what we think we should be doing or what we think is right, that soon, we're not there. We have to be on guard. We have to be on guard about what we are doing, just like Jesus Christ inspired in 1 John 3 to the Apostle John when he said, if you have this hope of the kingdom in you, purify yourself. Clear your soil. Make sure it's fertile soil. Not stony, not with thorns. Have it be the fertile soil because if it's stony or if it's thorns, if there's things that are distracting you and you allow them to continue to distract you, you are not going to be. That's not the road to the kingdom. The first three don't make it there. Only one of the soils is the way to the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God. Any one of us, me included, and anyone you can think of, any one of us, could become a victim of this third soil if we don't watch what's going on, if we don't comprehend, if we don't understand, if we don't take it importantly, and if we let things, no matter how good or how right they are, when they stand in the way of what God is doing and the fertile ground he wants us to be living in, well, those things aren't of him if they take us away from what we are supposed to be doing.

And then finally, in Matthew 13, we have the fourth soil, the first fourth soil.

Well, let's let me finish here. Let me not finish, but let me finish the third soil here by reading Matthew 13, verse 22, where Jesus Christ interprets that for the people, his disciples. In verse 22, he says, Now he who receives seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. And in verse 23, But he who receives seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who grasps it, who comprehends it, who sees the importance and the value of it. He sees it as the pearl of great price that he is willing to sacrifice anything for, even sacrifice his life as that seed that sacrificed its life, that it can grow into the tree that God wants. But he who receives seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces some 100-fold, some 60, some 30.

John 15, you know the verses. John 15, verse 8. We please God when we produce, when we bear much fruit. That's what his wish is. That's what his desire is when he sows the seed.

That he won't make us bear fruit. He'll give us everything we need to do bear fruit, but we've got to be the ones to make it happen by the choices we make, the decisions we make, and what we do in our personal lives to make sure that our ground is good and fertile and clear of all these things that can choke the seed and the plant and the wheat that he is wanting to grow in us. I'm going to give you a series of verses here in James on the people that we need to become. You'll know them by heart. I think when I read them, James 1, 22 says, we have to be a doer of the word and not hear only. It's great to have knowledge.

It's great to be here and listen to God's word. We have to do it. We have to apply it into our lives. And if all we do is sit here and listen, and we don't make active changes in our lives to comply with what God has said, we're fooling ourselves. We're deceiving ourselves. We haven't taken it seriously. James 2, 26. Must have faith, but show your faith through your good works.

Don't just say you have faith. Do. By this we so that we have faith when we see the works that we give. James 4, verses 7 and 8. We read this verse last week, submit to God. Have to submit to Him. Simply the only way. Submit to Him. Surrender to Him. And resist the devil. Resist and clear out the stones, the thorns that are in that way. Resist Him.

In verses chapter 5 and verses 11 and 12, it says, Blessed is He who endures. Blessed is He who endures. Who stays viable and who stays and has that fervent ground right until the very end. Same thing that Jesus Christ said in Matthew 24, verse 13. He who endures to the end. Not 90% of the way through His life, not 75%, not until the last year. He who endures to the end. Who has that fertile soil until the very end. That's the one who will be saved. That's the one who will enter into the kingdom of God. So as we read about these this parable and the other parables that you can read as Jesus Christ talked about the kingdom of heaven, we can see ourselves and we see what God is working and how He works in the world. And our job is to understand and to continue to do the work, as we heard in the sermonette as well, to continue to do the work worldwide but in our personal lives and never let down our guard.

And to continually clear that ground and don't ever let anything choke out the seed that God has planted in you and me.