Skip to content The. Only. God.: The Message of Christ Dec 22 · 59 min ...more
The. Only. God.: The Message of Christ
December 22, 2024 · 59 min
Pastor Jeff emphasized the importance of understanding the message of Christ and the various responses people have to it, using the Parable of the Sower as a focal point. He explained that while the seed represents God's Word, the soil reflects the condition of the heart, highlighting four types: the hardened heart, the shallow heart, the worldly heart, and the receptive heart, each leading to different spiritual outcomes. Pastor Jeff urged the congregation to recognize their own spiritual state, emphasizing that true belief results in fruitfulness and a genuine relationship with Christ. Ultimately, he called for individuals to examine their faith and consider making Jesus the Lord of their lives. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
Series BRAVE Church December 22, 2024 · 59 min · BRAVE Church
Pastor Jeff emphasized the importance of understanding the message of Christ and the various responses people have to it, using the Parable of the Sower as a focal point. He explained that while the seed represents God's Word, the soil reflects the condition of the heart, highlighting four types: the hardened heart, the shallow heart, the worldly heart, and the receptive heart, each leading to different spiritual outcomes. Pastor Jeff urged the congregation to recognize their own spiritual state, emphasizing that true belief results in fruitfulness and a genuine relationship with Christ. Ultimately, he called for individuals to examine their faith and consider making Jesus the Lord of their lives. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub ...more Show the full description Show less Pastor Jeff emphasized the importance of understanding the message of Christ and the various responses people have to it, using the Parable of the Sower as a focal point. He explained that while the seed represents God's Word, the soil reflects the condition of the heart, highlighting four types: the hardened heart, the shallow heart, the worldly heart, and the receptive heart, each leading to different spiritual outcomes. Pastor Jeff urged the congregation to recognize their own spiritual state, emphasizing that true belief results in fruitfulness and a genuine relationship with Christ. Ultimately, he called for individuals to examine their faith and consider making Jesus the Lord of their lives. Speaker: Jeff Schwarzentraub
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Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
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0:00 Good morning, Brave Church. Will you help me welcome all of our campuses who are worshiping with us today? So great to worship with all of you. A couple reminders before we get started preaching the word this morning.0:12 Christmas Eve services, December 20 fourth is Tuesday, 2 o'clock and 4 o'clock. It is a fantastic time to invite people to church. They look for opportunities. They don't wanna0:24 walk in by themselves. Feel free to ask. You'll be amazed at how many people come. It will be packed in here. We do have overflow seating. If you see people that you don't know that have never been here before, give them0:34 your seat. It's okay. Don't fight for your seat. Say you can't sit here. We sit here every Sunday. Get out. Don't do that. Welcome people. Let them feel good. It's gonna be a great time. We'll be sharing the gospel of0:44 Jesus Christ and trusting God to save many that day. Also want you to put this in your mind starting in the new year, January fifth, we started our 21 days of prayer and fasting. We as a church begin our0:55 year doing that, and the purpose of that is that you'd fall more in love with Jesus. Couple of comments to make, we will be praying every day for that 21 days. On Monday through Friday, we meet here from 6 30 to 7 30 in1:07 the morning. On Saturdays, we'll meet from 8 o'clock to 9 o'clock for those 21 days. There is nothing in the Bible that mandates that you fast. You do not have to fast. We are asking you to1:19 consider participating as the Lord would lead you. Nobody's gonna ask you what you're going to do if you choose not to fast, totally fine. It's an individual thing and fasting is simply setting aside1:31 food for the purpose of seeking the Lord and growing more strong spiritually. Couple words to you, if you've never fasted before, start small. Pick 1 meal out of the 21
1:42 days. Don't think, if we're doing 21 days, I think I'll just not eat for 21 days. You won't make it, number 1. Number 2, it's not about starving yourself. It's not about what you're doing. It is for the mature believer
1:54 to begin to set aside food for the purpose of seeking the Lord. If you have a medical condition, seek your doctor. Maybe you can set aside something else for the purpose of seeking the Lord. But again, it's up to you how
2:05 you wanna participate. Our goal is that we as 21 for 21 days, would seek the face of the Lord more intensely and fall more in love with Jesus as we begin our calendar year. Would love you to be a part of that. I
2:17 think if I'm not mistaken by next Sunday, our prayer journals will be here. I wrote a 21 day prayer journal that you can have and use as a tool as we spend that 21 days together as a church family. And with that, let's
2:29 continue our worship as we go before the Lord and get ready to hear his word among Our father in heaven, we give you all the praise and glory for who you are, and we thank you specifically this day, for the gift of your
2:38 son, Jesus Christ, whom you sent to this earth, who became incarnate flesh, who fulfilled the law, who died on a cross in our place, who paid for all the sin of the world, who rose from the dead. We give him all of
2:50 our allegiance and praise. We thank you for your Holy Spirit who indwells every single 1 of us who believe. We ask that you would move mightily in this service today so we could hear your word. We thank you Holy Spirit
3:00 that you still convict of sin, righteousness and judgment. We ask you to do that today for the sake of your great name. And so now we come and we gather before you and we're excited because we as a people believe that
3:10 every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that you are speaking. So our prayer this morning is speak Lord for we are ready to hear. And so now all those who have gathered, who desire to hear Jesus
3:21 Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you and who will by faith put into practice what he shows you. Will you agree with me very loudly this morning by saying the word amen. Amen. This morning, I
3:33 wanna talk to you about the message of Christ. I wanna talk to about the message of Christ. We've been in this series called the only God and we've been talking about our Trinitarian God and we've been spelling out
3:44 truths from God's word about who Jesus Christ is. And we started this series by talking about the deity of Christ, that in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. We talked about who he
3:55 was, that he's always existed, that the second person of the Trinity has always existed. There's never been a time where he did not exist. He's God and nearly 2000 years ago, he became flesh and made
4:06 his dwelling among us. And we spent week 2 talking about incarnation and how in humility and in obedience to his father, he put on flesh, not just for 33 years while he was on the earth, but for all eternity so
4:18 that he could do what we couldn't do. Number 1, he wanted to identify with us, but number 2, he wanted to fulfill the law so that when he died on the cross, he could pay for all of our sin. He rose from the dead,
4:30 validating that he was indeed God's 1 and only son. He rose from the dead, he ascended into heaven and he's coming back as the God man. He is both God and man. He is truly God, truly man. When you see Jesus, you see
4:41 deity and you see humanity all wrapped up together. That's who he is. And then last week, we talked about the ministry of Jesus and we talked about the fact there's no possible way in 1 sermon to cover it
4:53 all. As a matter of fact, I was thinking this week when I taught the book of Matthew to our congregation, I I spent 3 years and 90 sermons to get it all done, and still we hadn't exhausted the ministry of Jesus. To do
5:04 that, we would need to start in Genesis 1 1, go all the way through the end of Revelation 22, 21 and get a full picture how all the prophetic utterances in the Old Testament came to be the exact way that the
5:16 New Testament describes Jesus Christ being. But we talked about who he was and how he had authority and what he did and when he encountered different people and how he brought grace and truth to every single
5:28 encounter. But today I wanna talk about the message of Jesus. What was it he was trying to proclaim? Why did he come? And what is he wanting to do in your heart? And it's important that you know the message, but it's
5:39 also important you know that when you hear the message, there's going to be a response to the message. You can't remain passive to the message of Jesus Christ. It's important for you to know who would say, I'm a
5:51 believer, I already know the message. It's important for you to know because you're called to share the message, what goes off inside a person when you share the message of Jesus Christ. Well, how are people going to
6:02 respond? And whether it's me here preaching today, you sharing the gospel with a friend, neighbor or relative, all of these truths continue to apply today, which will be helpful for you if you're a Christian in your
6:14 growth, and it will also be helpful to you as you hear this to examine yourself and ask yourself, am I really a believer today? And so to do that, we're gonna look at a very familiar story in God's word found in Mark
6:25 chapter 4, Mark chapter 4. We're gonna be in verses 1 through 20, but I'm gonna set up the first 12 verses for us and then we'll get into the the responses to the message of Jesus as a result of
6:37 this parable that Jesus Christ told. It's an important parable. You're gonna see that it may be the most important of all the parables that he's told, and it's important that we understand it as a church and that you
6:48 individually understand this because this is how you're responding to the message of Jesus in some way. Notice what he says. He says, he began to teach again by the sea and such a very large crowd gathered to
7:00 him that he got into a boat in the sea and sat down and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables and he was saying to them in his teaching, listen to this,
7:12 behold, the sower went out to sow and as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil and immediately it sprang up
7:23 because it had no depth of soil. And after the sun had risen, it was scorched and because it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns and the thorns came up and choked it
7:35 and it yielded no crop. Other seeds fell into the good soil and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced 30, 60 and a hundredfold. And he was saying, he who has ears, let him hear. As
7:47 soon as he was alone, his followers along with the 12 began asking him about the parables and he was saying to them, to you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in
7:56 parables so that while seeing they may see and not perceive and while hearing they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might turn and be forgiven. And sometimes
8:08 that's called the the parable of the sower. I think it should be called the parable of the soils because really the sower is doing the exact same thing every single time he's sowing seed, but there's different responses
8:19 to the seed. In the first century, for farming, they didn't have combines, they didn't plow different rows, they didn't have seeds that were placed in the ground. The way that they would plant seeds is they would walk
8:30 out into the field, they would have a satchel or a bag with seed in it, and they would scatter the seed. And he tells this story that some seed fell upon the hard ground. The seed couldn't get into the ground, and when
8:41 it did, the birds came and ate it up. Then he told about the different kind of seed that fell among places where the soil was somewhat shallow because there was a rock bed underneath, so it sprung up quickly, but when
8:52 the sun came out, because it had no root, it withered away and died. Third kind of soil fell among the weeds, it grew up, but the the weeds choked it out and made it unfruitful, And then there was a fourth kind
9:04 of soil, and when the seed got into that good soil, it produced a harvest of 30, 60 and even a hundredfold. And he was telling them while he's telling the story, he who has ears, let him hear. That's Jesus Christ's way
9:15 of saying, if you have spiritual ears, pay attention to this, it's really important. And that's the story, that's all he told. And when he got along with his disciples, they're like, hey, Jesus, why is it that when we're
9:26 with you, you tell us specifically about the kingdom of God and righteousness and all these things, but when we're with other people, you talk in parables. And he tells them, he quotes Isaiah, he says, here's why I speak
9:38 in parables. I'm telling parables so that those who have spiritually discerning ears will press in to hear it and those who want to hear it can hear a deeper richness of what I'm trying to say. And I'm
9:50 also talking in parables so that those who say, I don't get it, will just never get it. Friends, Jesus didn't talk in parables because he was telling stories so that everybody would understand. I've heard a lot of people
10:00 say this in Jesus always spoke in parables because people love stories. Yes, people love stories, but the purpose of the story is the reason that you tell it. The word parable literally means 1 alongside, and there's
10:11 several parables in our Bible where Jesus tells a story, a made up story to tell 1 nugget of spiritual truth. And here's what you know about every single parable. They're all shocking. Like they're all
10:22 beyond belief. Like that's not how I expected this to go. You remember when Jesus told the story of the publican and the the sinner that went up to pray? 1 was righteous, 1 was unrighteous, and the Pharisee began, he
10:34 said, hey, Lord, I just wanna thank you that I'm not like all other men. I I tithe, I give. I'm pretty awesome. I'm pretty good. And it's so nice to come to you. I know how to pray, I know what to do, and I do all the
10:44 right things. And then there was a sinner that stood at a distance and all he did was beat his chest, say, Lord, have mercy on me a sinner. And the shock of the story is Jesus said, that 1, the sinner went
10:56 home justified. And if we would have been there, we'd be like, what? You mean the religious good person that knows how to pray that that's not what you're looking for? You're looking for the 1 that's calling out for
11:05 mercy and desperation? Yeah, that's what it is. Or remember the story about the prodigal sons and the younger son that ran away and squandered all of his father's wealth and made his dad undignified and sure enough, he
11:16 ends up slopping pigs and after he finds himself in the pigpen comes home to be with his dad and what would you expect? You'd expect the dad to go running after him and punish him and yell at him and tell him what he did
11:27 wrong. And what's we see? We see the dad looking for him in the distance and starts sprinting after him, is an undignified thing. But when he comes to the son, what does he do? He throws his arms around him. He hugs and
11:37 kisses him. He says, welcome home. Not only that, bring the fatted calf. Let's celebrate. Put a ring on his finger, sandals on his feet, bring the best robe. This son of mine was dead. Now he's alive. He was lost. Now
11:48 he's found. Let's celebrate. You're like, what in the world? Your son, you know, made you look bad and yet you're celebrating him. I mean, that's why parables are shocking or the story of the good Samaritan.
12:00 Jews hated Samaritans. There's no such thing as a quote, good Samaritan. And so when Jesus tells this story, he tells the story about a man that was on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he got beat up by robbers.
12:12 And when the priest sees him, he goes all the way around him because the priest doesn't wanna become ceremonially unclean. When the Levite, who was 1 of the worship leaders saw him, he came up to him, but when he doesn't
12:20 recognize him, he too goes around him. Because I I guess God knows this guy needed to take care of. But when the Samaritan came, what does he do? When the Samaritans aren't any good, they're not gonna do anything.
12:30 Samaritan goes up, bandages his wounds, puts him on his donkey, takes him to the inn, pays for him, tells the guy if there's ever anything else that he needs, let me know. I'll come back and pay for him. Shocking story.
12:41 And then he asked who did, who was the 1 being neighborly and the and the guy can't even say the word Samaritan. He goes, the 1 who took care of him. I mean, parables are shocking. This parable is shocking. Jesus
12:53 is telling about seed that's going out and the seed we're gonna find out is the word of God which goes out and how people respond to the message is gonna be very, different. And I'm gonna make 5 points about the message
13:04 of Jesus today and the first point is this, as we get started, that the message of Christ is misunderstood by the unregenerate heart. The message of Christ is misunderstood by the unregenerate heart. Now
13:16 you may ask, how is it that we can tell the story of Jesus and people just don't get it? Here's the story we've been telling. I'll sum it up. We're talking about Jesus Christ, God's eternal son, the second person of the
13:27 trinity, who 2000 years ago put on flesh and came to save the world from their sins. He was born in Bethlehem in a manger, but that 1, the God man grew up in wisdom, knowledge, and stature, fulfilled the law,
13:40 demonstrated he was the Messiah and the Christ, and then willingly went to the cross as he said he was going to do. He was beaten, he was whipped, he was stripped, he was laid on a cross,
13:51 he got nails driven into his hands and his feet, and he died in your place for all your sin. Why do you need to do that? Because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, you're a sinner, and the wages of sin
14:03 is death, you're gonna die. And if you die and your sin is apart from Christ, you will be dragged to an eternal hell. God so loved the world that he sent Jesus so you wouldn't have to. Jesus Christ died in your place for
14:13 all your sins, rose from the dead, so that through repentance and faith, meaning through turning from your sin to Christ, you can receive the full measure of Christ's forgiveness and the full measure of Christ's life in
14:23 your life. That's the message. It's not about getting religion, it's not about joining the church, it's not about giving your money, it's not about trying to be better a person, it's about you're dead and you need to be
14:33 made alive and Jesus Christ is the only 1 that can do that. And even if you think about just the gospel of John, I mean, it's the message is everywhere. John 1 1 says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with
14:43 God and the word was God. It means Jesus has always been here with his father from all eternity. There's never a time he didn't exist and the word became flesh and he made his dwelling among us. John 1 14,
14:56 that the second person of the trinity, the God man came into this world on your behalf to identify with you. If he ever stopped being God, it means that his death on the cross had no significance for you. And if he ever
15:07 stopped being man, it means that we as human beings have no relationship to God. John 3 16, Why did he come? For God so loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him would not
15:16 perish but have eternal life. John 10 10, the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy. I've come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. Jesus said, amidst the plurality of religions and people's ideas,
15:27 he said in John 14 6, I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No 1 comes to the father except through me. He said in John 17 3 in his high priestly prayer, now this is eternal life, that they may know you,
15:39 the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. And even when he was hanging on the cross praying, he said what? It is finished. All throughout the scriptures, we see the exact same story that mankind is
15:50 unregenerate, mankind can't get to God, there's nothing that we can do to get there. So God sent his son Jesus and through Jesus Christ, the God man, that's the only way to have a relationship with the father. Period,
16:01 end of story. So how come not everybody gets that? It's really interesting because first Corinthians tells us why. In first Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 18 tells
16:12 us about the response that you're gonna get when you preach the gospel to those who are unregenerate sometimes. Says that the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are
16:24 perishing, but to those of us who are being saved, it has become the power of God. And here's why that is. First Corinthians 2 14, but a natural man does not accept the things of the spirit of God for they are
16:35 foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually appraised. Talk to someone that's unregenerate, that doesn't want anything to do with God, and they will reject Jesus Christ outright.
16:47 They'll say that's foolish. You can't really believe that Jesus Christ is the only way. Have you noticed there's over 8000000000 people in the world? You're gonna tell me right now that Jesus Christ is the only way, the
16:56 truth, life for all of them? Yes. That's what I'm telling you. That's exactly and the unregenerate heart can't get their mind around that, so they always construct their view of their God in their own way.
17:08 Some people do it through what's called atheism where they say, there is no God, therefore, don't need to respond to God. Therefore, I can live my life however I want. Some atheists are good people, some atheists aren't
17:17 good people. It doesn't really matter. Atheists are wicked in their heart. They're foolish in their heart, not that they're not smart, but they're foolish in that they're wicked towards the things of God. They want
17:27 nothing to do with the word. Some would say, no, I'm not an atheist, I'm more agnostic. I know there's a God, we just can't know who he is, and so I've developed principles that help me live right with God. And I've
17:38 developed these principles based on morality, and by morality, what I'm saying is what I consider moral. I'll make God in my own way to do what I wanna do, and then I'll compare myself to how I believe God would want
17:50 me to be. And then there's others who just flat out reject Jesus, and some do it nicely and some do it in hostility. I've met people that do it nicely where I've shared the gospel with somebody, and they're like, oh,
18:02 that is so sweet. You and your wife are in the ministry. That's so kind the world needs people like you. No, you need to repent and trust Jesus is what needs to happen here. Nice. They just don't want anything to do with
18:14 it. They're not mean people. They just they don't wanna hear about Jesus being the only way. And then some people are hostile. I've done street preaching before. I've I've been told off with every kind of 4 letter words
18:24 you can possibly imagine. Hostility towards it. And if you watch people online or on social media, there's a hostility, either a passive 1 or I'm not that interested or a hostile 1 that you've gotta be
18:36 kidding me that you think Jesus is the only way. Why? Because the unregenerate heart has to make up who their God is in their own image. And even the unregenerate, some of the unregenerate call themselves Christians. I'm
18:46 a Christian and I totally believe this. I'm a Christian and I believe that. And when they say I believe it, they they go thoroughly against the word and everything that they say, but they're like, but I'm a Christian.
18:56 I'm a Christian. I think homosexuality is okay. I'm a Christian. I don't think adultery is wrong. I'm a Christian, I don't think you need to forgive that person if they're mean to you. Well, that's not a Christian. The
19:06 unregenerate heart will always make up God in their own image and you need to see that as a blanket to what Jesus is saying because we're gonna talk about 4 different kinds of responses that we can have to him this
19:18 morning. Because it's really interesting, in verse 13, notice what he says, and he said to them, do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? Jesus said, if you don't get this 1, you
19:26 won't get them In in other words, this may be the most important parable Jesus has ever told. Like, you get this, all the other parables make sense. You don't get this, none of the other parables will make sense. Like,
19:36 you better get this 1. And he's asking his disciple, you don't understand it, do you? Like, you don't get what I'm trying to say, do you? So let me explain in private to you what I was trying to explain and you need to
19:48 fully understand this. And as you're listening today, I'm asking you, I'm pleading with you, pay attention to every type of soil that Jesus talks about. Because it's the message of Christ is
20:00 so misunderstood by the unregenerate. Let me give you 4 responses that you're gonna have when you hear the gospel of Jesus Christ or the message of Christ. And the first is this,
20:12 the message of Christ will be rejected by the hardened heart. The message of Christ will be rejected by the hardened heart. The the hardened heart is 1 of the unregenerate hearts that he talks about. Notice what he said.
20:23 He said in verse 4, he said, and he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road and the birds came and ate it up. And then he explains what that means in verses, 14, 15, and
20:35 14 and 15. He said, the sower sows the word. So we know the seed is the word. The seed is the logos. The logos is the word of God. We talked about in the beginning was the word and the word was God and the word was with
20:46 God and the word was God. It's the logos. It's the it's whatever the logos is, it's the 1 that created all things. It's the 1 that holds all things together. The 1 who has created power, all authority, that's the logos.
20:58 And so that's that's the word of God. And as this word goes forth, here's 1 response. The ones that got eaten by the birds, these are the ones beside the road where the word is sown and when they hear
21:09 immediately, Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. You need to understand every time that Christ is being exalted, Christ is being talked about, the word
21:21 is being preached, you're sharing the gospel with a friend. Every time that's being talked about, there is a danger because here's what the enemy wants to do. He wants to rob it from your heart so it doesn't take root in
21:32 your heart. So he's gonna steal it before you even hear it. That's why some of you are falling asleep right now. That's a hardened heart. Right? I'm just here because
21:44 my parents made me come. I'm just here because my wife made me come. My my my husband dragged me. You're you're how long is this gonna be? How much long? 2 hours. Pay attention. I
21:57 was joking. But here's what he's saying. It's like I'm numb to it. I mean, grew up in a church where the pastor only preached about 15 minutes and somebody had the great idea they would douse the lights before he would
22:08 speak. I could fall asleep easily in those 15 minutes even if I wasn't tired. Why? Because the enemy is constantly working to take the word of God
22:20 away from you because he knows if that ever gets implanted in your life, you will never ever be the same. So you need to understand the enemy is at work every time that the word of God
22:31 is being proclaimed. Every time you're sharing the faith with another, the enemy is at work like trying to rob it and take it away because he knows he wants nothing about you to be connected to the word.
22:44 And here's the truth. Here's what he also knows is that unbelief is really the only unforgivable sin. And by unbelief, I'm talking about you die in your sins, believing that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living
22:55 God, not believing he died for you and rose from the dead, not having turned your life over to him. You die in that condition, you will go to an eternal hell. And he knows that, so he doesn't want you to hear anything
23:07 about God. And so some of you, even while you're listening, you're getting hostile, you're getting mad, like this is the last time I'm coming back to this church, I don't like this message, I don't like this guy, all
23:15 that kind of stuff. That's a hardened heart. A hardened heart's like, don't make me listen to this Jesus stuff. Why are you so hostile about this Jesus stuff? Here's why. Because the devil is
23:27 getting you to hate the word of God because he doesn't want you anywhere near it. That's why that's the hardened heart. The hardened heart doesn't want the things of God. The hardened heart doesn't hear the things of
23:38 God. The hardened heart doesn't know the things of God because you forget a couple of things that the word of God teaches. In Ephesians 2 and verse 1, it says that you are dead in your trespasses and sins. Your biggest
23:49 problem is not that you're a bad person or a good person. It's not that you need to work harder in life or you gotta work on something. Your biggest problem in your life is that you're born spiritually dead and there's
23:59 nothing you can do about it. And there is no 1 good, no, not 1, and the wages of sin is death. And if you die in the condition that you're in, you will spend a crisis eternity, which will be awful. Another
24:11 truth that you don't hear is Psalm 7 verse 11, that God is angry with the wicked every day. Now you might say, thank goodness, I'm not wicked. Well, according to the Bible, you're born wicked, and you have a track
24:23 record of doing wicked things. By wicked, I don't mean awful heinous crimes. By wicked, I mean, you have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and you're not living his ways. And the Bible calls that wicked, and the Lord's
24:33 angry every single day with the wicked. If you're sinning, he hates it. Keep this in mind. When Jesus died for sins on the cross, he doesn't send sins to hell. Who does he send to hell? Sinners.
24:46 Like sinners go to hell, not your sin. It's not like when you die, God separates you from your sin, sends your sin to hell and takes you to heaven. You sinners that own what they did go to hell. Right? So he died for
24:58 sinners and he's angry with sinners every single day. That's what the Bible says, right? And here's the problem that you have with it. Second Corinthians 4 4 highlights this. I didn't know
25:10 that. Here's why you didn't know that. Not only are you spiritually dead, but you're mentally blind. In whose case, second Corinthians four:four, The God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so
25:22 that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God. So not only are you dead, not only you can't hear God, can't see God, but the enemy is working hard to keep your mind
25:32 spiritually blind to the things of God so that you respond hostilely to them. So that when you hear a preacher say, God will send sinners to hell. God sends unrepentant sinners to hell. Instead of saying, what must I do?
25:42 You say, I don't like that teaching. I'm out of here. And I got good news for you. You you can get out of here, but the holy spirit will still chase you down with that truth for the rest of your life. Do you know that?
25:55 I mean, when I tell you that God loves you for the believer, there is a special kind of relational, fatherly, family love that you receive. When you turn from
26:07 your sin to Christ, he loves you with an unconditional love. There is nothing, not 1 thing you can do to make him love you any bit less and there's nothing you can do to make him love you
26:18 anymore. I mean, he loves loves loves you unconditionally. It's a relational, powerful love. But pastor Jeff, at the end of every service, you say you are loved. And you just said that
26:30 those who are unregenerate, God will send to hell. Here's how he loves you. He created you in his image. So he has a love for you and here's how much he loves you. He loves you with a pursuing love. Jesus
26:42 Christ loves you so much. He left heaven, became the God man so that he could die on the cross in your place for all your sins. That even if you don't respond to him, he still loves you.
26:55 God demonstrated his own love for us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. I heard a story a long time ago about a woman who had filled up in a gas station, she went in to pay her bill, came out of the
27:06 gas station, started pulling out of the gas station, got onto the highway. As she got onto the highway, she saw this police car just ripping behind her, turn the lights on, sirens flashing, chasing her down, and she's
27:17 thinking, didn't do anything wrong. Like, this is crazy. Kept chasing her down, kept chasing her down, ran into finally, pulled over, got into a Walmart. She's like, this is weird that he's pulling me over. I didn't do
27:28 anything wrong. And she got out of her car kinda like to scream at the police officer, like, what did I do? And when she did, the door of her back the the back door of her car opened and this guy ran out and the police
27:40 chased him down and handcuffed him. He said, man, I watched him get in your car when you went outside and I was chasing you down so that he wouldn't hurt you. That's a pursuing love. That's the kind of
27:52 love God has for the unrepentant. He doesn't hate you. He created you, but he's pursuing you because if you die in your trespasses and sins, you will be apart from him for all eternity and he cares
28:04 about you so much. He's coming after you. Don't fight it. Amen? Amen. And the hardened heart
28:14 rejects Christ. They just rejects him all the time. But there's another there's another soil too that he talks about. The soil that fell upon the rocks. You read it in verse 5, other seed fell
28:26 upon the rocky ground where it did not have much soil and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. And after the sun had risen, it was scorched because it had no root and it withered away. And Jesus
28:36 tells us what that looks like in verses 16 and 17. He said in a similar way. So in a similar way means in the same way as the hardened heart is the rocky heart. Like it's the same
28:48 thing. It's just a different expression of the same thing. In a similar way, these are the ones on whom the seed was sown on the rocky places who when they hear the word immediately they receive it with joy and they have
28:59 no firm root in themselves but are only temporary then when affliction or persecution arises because of the word immediately they fall away. So the message of Christ gives you this response,
29:11 it's temporary in the shallow heart. The message of Christ is temporary in the shallow heart. So these are people that would perhaps even hear the
29:22 gospel, perhaps even pray a prayer, perhaps even stand to their feet, perhaps even give a profession of faith, perhaps even say, I believe in Jesus, perhaps even say, he's my Lord, perhaps say all those things
29:34 until until their seeming faith costs them something. Until they realize, well, wait a second. You mean God asked me to be that kind of husband? You mean God
29:46 asked me to be that kind of wife? You mean God asked me to raise those kind of kids? You mean God asked me to do this with my money? You mean, man, people are making fun of me? I didn't sign up for that. What I signed up
29:56 for was the benefits of what Christ could give, but I never wanted Christ. That's the shallow soil. That's the shallow heart. These are people that would say, I wanna go to heaven. What do I gotta do to get there? It's
30:08 the rich young ruler. It's what what do I what do I gotta do? Just tell me what I gotta pray. Tell me what I gotta do. Just tell me, here's what I wanna know. What's the bare minimum I can do and still get all the
30:17 benefit from you without ever having spent any time with you? That's the shallow soil. Now as a pastor and as somebody's walked with the Lord for 35 years, I've watched this hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times.
30:28 Sometimes people spring up, they have an experience, they cry their eyes out, they love the worship, they like the presence of God, they like the feeling, They announce that they're a Christian. Everybody cheers. It's
30:37 great. It's awesome. It's good. But they never had a relationship with Christ. They really didn't want Christ. They wanted the benefit of what they were feeling to continue. And when persecution comes, they're like, I'm
30:46 out of here. I don't want anything. I'm not talking about they changed churches. I'm talking about I'm done with Christ. I'm falling away. Some people this happens a couple months after they seemingly profess their
30:56 faith. Some people it's over a period of time or even years were like, what in the world? I thought they were my they were my cadre. They served with me at church. They were like, now they're like not even there anymore.
31:05 Like what happened to them? They were never a believer in the first place. That's pretty scary, isn't it? I mean, Jesus said that the Bible tells us this, second Timothy 3 12, anyone who
31:17 wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. You trust Christ, you're gonna have trials. Jesus said in this world, you will have tribulation. So if you falsely believe that, well, I'm gonna trust
31:27 Christ, I won't have any problems anymore, you're gonna have more. But the problems you're gonna have are because of Him, and it's gonna be challenging. And here's what we know as believers. When trials and challenges
31:39 come as a believer, even though we're uncomfortable with them, even though we wouldn't have authored them, even though we wouldn't have wanted them, We know as a christian when we press into them and press through them,
31:50 our faith in Christ actually grows and gets stronger. And it's what God uses as a curriculum to develop us. That's a great place for an amen. Amen.
32:02 Because sometimes we trust Christ and everything's gonna be great and I got married, it was gonna be great and I got kids and it was gonna be great and then what happened? My husband left. What happened? My wife was
32:12 sleeping around. What happened? I thought I had this job. What if you're a Christian and those things happen, you're gonna press into Jesus even more. And here's what you find in God's word. He tells you there's a
32:24 blessing and even though it's uncomfortable at the time. Romans chapter 5 verses 3 to 5 and says, and not only this, but we also exalt or rejoice in our tribulations knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance and
32:35 perseverance proven character and character hope. And hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. So what happens? We go through a
32:47 rough time. We're rejoicing, not about the situation, but we're rejoicing that we belong to Christ because we know that in that situation, he's developing our character. He's developing our perseverance. We're gonna have
32:57 more hope in what? In Christ. And anybody that's been through a trial that pursues the Lord in the middle of the trial comes out the other side and says, I'll do love the Lord more,
33:09 but I hated going through that and I wish I'd never have to go through it again, but I've lived long enough now to know there's another 1 coming. Right? That that's what he does, but the shallow soil anytime something
33:20 creeps up like, I'm done with this. I'm out. I didn't sign up for this. I'm not 1 of those Jesus weird people. And when they go out from you and they don't come back, that was
33:32 a sign they never belonged to to Christ in the first place. You say, how do you know that? Because the Bible teaches that. First John chapter 2, verse 19 says, they went out from us, but they were not really of us. For
33:42 if they've been with us, they would have remained with us, but they went out so that it would be shown that they are really not of us. Friends, it happens all the time. You say, pastor Jeff, then why do you have people
33:53 stand at Christmas and Eastern respond? For the ones who are genuinely converted so they can remember that moment, but do I believe that every single person that stands to their feet was converted? Not necessarily. I
34:02 don't know if it was a magic formula that if you stood to your feet, you get saved. I'd make everybody stand for the whole message when I'm preaching. Like there's no magic formula here, folks.
34:14 It's a change of heart and there's a hardened heart that wants nothing to do with Jesus. Nice people in that category, hustle people in that category. Then there's a shallow heart of people that
34:26 say, hey, I just want the benefits of Jesus but just don't take me through the rut. I'm not looking to pursue Jesus. I don't want Jesus in my life. I just wanted the benefits. And if things are gonna get tough for me
34:35 being of Jesus follower, I don't wanna follow Him anymore. That's the shallow heart, you'll see that it's disappointing every time that you do. And then there's a third heart. And you remember the third heart was those
34:46 that fell among weeds or the thorns. Notice verse 7, other seed fell among the thorns and the thorns came up and choked it and it yielded no crop. And Jesus begins to spell out this
34:59 in verses 18 and 19. Notice what he says, and others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns. These are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world and the
35:11 deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things enter in and choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. So the message of Jesus here, the message of Christ here is choked by the worldly heart.
35:23 There's a worldly heart and the worldly heart chokes what happens. Now of all of the pictures in this parable, this is probably the most shocking of all of them.
35:35 And here's why, because he says that there's seed that goes forth and it's actually springing up and it actually looks like it's doing well. But I want you to pay attention because in both the verses up top in
35:47 verse 7 where it says it yielded no crop and down here where it says it becomes unfruitful, you need to know this about the third soil too. There's nothing to show for it. It's the same as the
35:59 first 2. Because sometimes we read this and we'll say like, yeah, my heart's a little hard today. I need to change it. Or you know what? It's a little rocky in my life and I need to do this. And you know what? I got a
36:09 little weeds and I gotta tend. That's not what this parable is addressing. This parable is addressing what the word of God does when it falls on different types of hearts. When it falls on a hardened heart, when it
36:21 falls on a shallow heart, and when it falls upon this heart. And this heart may be the most dangerous of all, this is the worldly heart. And it produces nothing either. Now it looks like it is because it's
36:33 growing among the thorns and it's growing among the weeds, but notice this, it's sown among the thorns. These are, they've heard the Word, but notice those 3 things. I'm I'm gonna read them to you twice. The worries of
36:44 the world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things. I'm gonna say it again because I want you to hear it. The worries of this world. I'm so concerned about what's gonna happen. I don't know what's
36:55 gonna happen. I'm worried, worried, worried, worried, worried, worried, worried. Okay, that's 1. The deceitfulness of wealth, I gotta have more. I gotta have more money. I don't have enough resources. I gotta have more.
37:04 I gotta focus on that. And the desire for other things, meaning your focus and attention is on someone or something other than Jesus mainly. Those 3 things. That's badShow more
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