1. How We Listen [Parables of the Kingdom] Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

all right well again welcome welcome to blackhawk you guys a few community life things as always we want to let you know about in the summer part of our kind of yearly rhythm as a church community we have a number of church and local nonprofit partners kind of all over the globe and in the summer it's kind of part of our rhythm that a number of teams go out and kind of go meet with those global partners assist them and what they're doing and so on so did you know that tomorrow there's a team leaving from Romania did you know about this okay if you kind of keep your ears to the ground you hear about these things so this is a part of our student ministries the high school ministry there's going to be a group of about 20 or so high school students and also leaders and they're leaving tomorrow for about two and a half weeks for Craiova city of Craiova Romania so we have a long-term partner there it's a church and a local organization that works with our orphans in the city of Craiova giving them transitional housing and life skills help them get on their feet and so on so are the teams going to go there and just help them with their facility they do English camps and so on so it's a really cool ministry and there they go they're going out for two and half weeks if you want and please as a community we want to support them in prayer we ask you to join us in that if you look in your bulletin you'll see a web address for a blog and they'll be kind of posting prayer requests and updates and stuff for the team so please follow follow them as they go sound good mm-hmm and also did you see stuff like plastic bags and cards and so on backpack bonanza stuff as you came in did you all right good good so this again part of our yearly rhythm this is kind of the twin partner we do our summer food drives in June and then July August we do backpack bonanza so about half of the families and who have students in Madison public school districts live at or below the poverty line many under resourced families that can't get basic stuff like you know school supplies and so what we do we're doing this for years now we partner with local schools and give them supplies and then they are able to gift students with supplies you know that they wouldn't otherwise have so here's how it works you grab a plastic bag if you want to get a bag of school supplies for a little dude or dudette you grab a plastic bag and in the plastic bag is all the information you need exactly what to get and when to bring it back two weeks from today we want to bring all this stuff back when we bring it back two weeks from today so if you want to do that for a plastic bag if you want to get somebody a backpack grab one of these little cards that you'll see out there again it'll tell you exactly what to get don't get the highest-end backpack in the world right I roll to that little kid is like having a target on their back thankfully we have mil the road backpack you know that'll be functional for them that kind of thing I don't know with Galactic Heroes on it or something I don't know whatever you want but grab them the cards if you want to get school supplies and the backpack what did you do rocket science get a bag and a card yeah so so there you go and bring that stuff back in two weeks is that that clear okay cool so you know remember this is you know we bring this stuff in we get bags and backpacks and so on but every one of these represents a story you know a child's story and a family and this is part of being a blessing to our community being generous to our community and so we're excited to do this sound good excellent okay all right okay can I show you some pictures [Applause] so here's a little a little Roman Jackson Macky holy cow you guys I miss him already it's only I've just been a few hours since I seen him so here he's 12 just barely 12 hours old when I took this picture so he little Roman came into our world on July 13th Wednesday July 13th at 6:27 p.m. he was eight point four pounds and he had he had a big noggin it was a challenge to get him out but he came out with vigor and he's doing he's doing great Jessica has earned the title Shira the warrior princess in my opinion holy cow you guys so this is over 48 hours of labor contractions and she is a queen of the world now you know what I'm saying like she can do whatever she wants yeah I'm her servant yeah I can't believe she she did this so Roman he's killer he's such a great little dude and he is very he's very complex already we're discovering all these sides to his personality so you see some of them here so for example on the Left we have a little student Roman he's like he's like his dad he loves to learn and analyze and study things and I think he mostly studies air particles I don't know but who he's looking at people's faces in the middle is a little sleeping angel Roman and sees what can do no wrong he's super precious and that Roman doesn't last very long on the right is like crabbie crabbie Roman he said Roman and he's asking us why we brought him out like that's all I can think cause he has to have bowel movements and gas now and kind of thing so anyway look at that little guy so what a blessing there you go so how long till I get to go home so we're just we're super humbled really just humbled to be entrusted with this little guy and you know if your parents you know you know this experience so we're just really thankful to be a part of this community so many of you sent us well wishes and congrats on Facebook and so on and and we're praying for us there were some challenges during the labor and so we just thank you we feel really humbled to be a part of this community and we got to raise this guy I have to teach him to skateboard and what big big responsibility is ahead and I'm especially excited because you know I'm as a preacher this is like a whole new world of sermon illustration so you guys this is like be pulling him out right and left so should we get off on the right foot here can I start with one great so you know you can see this little guy they they day and night are meaningless to these little creatures when they come into the world right so that he's maybe as I just got a text from Jessica he's slept the most last night he has in his 13 days so that's that's blessing but you know whatever it's just newborn parents it's the Living Dead you know I mean that's just like the sleepless the sleeplessness and the fatigue and so on and it takes a toll man it just takes a toll on everything on your ability to think clearly and certainly Jesse and i's ability to communicate and if you've been parents of a newborn you probably you probably know the drill here so here's the scenario we've been in a lot unless in the last 11 days so just because Jessica's talking to me she comes up to talk to me and whatever I'm holding wrong and changing a diaper maybe he's taking a nap we've had a lot of down time reading a book or something and so she comes out to me she starts talking to me we have this doctor's appointment tomorrow or listen maybe let's do a grocery run or maybe she's telling me how she's feeling today because of the hormones are all over and and so she's telling this to me and and I give every indication that I am listening so I got nodding you know maybe even giving some verbal response mm-hmm-hmm you know but in my mind a different story altogether you know my mind I'm still thinking about his little face that he made or I'm trying to perfect the P proof seal on his diapers you know like none could escape I'm thinking about the book I'm reading whatever and and so I'm I'm hearing her but I'm not hearing her do you know what I'm talking about yeah all the wives in the room were like yes talking about and so I still finish so finish whatever she's saying and then I realize oh man I need to say something I need to respond she's expecting a response I have no idea what she was talking about and so I have two two options are open to me in this in the circumstance the first option is to say something very vague and open-ended that will rescue me what you know like whatever you know okay that sounds great sounds great honey you know good good and that will solve the immediate problem it creates a whole other set of problems though because I just agreed to something I disagree to what am I supposed to do so the other option open to me right take the high road is to humble myself and say Shira warrior princess queen of the world I I'm sorry you need to repeat everything you just said I was not listening I was focusing on something else I'm totally sorry I'm I'll try to listen now how many of you have been there you've been there and maybe you've been on the other end where you're talking to someone and it dawns on you after a couple of minutes like yeah they're not listening to me okay and you can see them what they're probably actually doing is forming their response in their head like what they want to say to you and that's what they're really most interested in is what they have to say and so you've been here this is this communication breakdown and I'd like to say that this is new to our marriage since Roman arrived but that would be a lie because this is like this is whatever this is what it's like to live with me and probably every other male right so this is communication breakdown and we're listening you hear sounds but you're not tracking you're just it's just noise just background noise and I think one of the most brilliant depictions of this communication gap was given to us by an artist named Charles Schulz creator of Charlie Brown do you remember it Charlie Brown cartoons the adults in Charlie Brown cartoons do you ever see the you want me to impound the erasers yes I'd be glad to okay so what does that sound does anybody know if Wikipedia is telling it's true if that's the only source that I could fire some sort of trumpet being covered with like somebody's hand or maybe like a plunge rubber plunger cover like this oh wow like it's kind of so there's brilliance it's brilliant isn't this and it's so memorable like everybody in the room nearly everybody knows this what's he getting at here there's the world of adults this is the world of children and never the two shall meet right it's just there's like a different language and the parents are talking right but it's just wah wah wah it's great it's great so this arm is our metaphor for for the day I'm convinced that what happens between Jessica and I the that what Charles Schultz is putting his thumb on this inability to truly to listen and communicate this is this is something that's endemic and widespread in religious communities to communities of faith and jeez communities and it happens for lots of different reasons because Jesus the teachings of Jesus stories about him they become very familiar over time or maybe you grew up hearing Jesus's name along with lots of other four-letter words whatever but he's an iconic figure in our culture we hear a lot about Jesus and and we run the risk all of us run the risk of the very powerful poignant teachings a message of Jesus to become background noise and so we're around you know and we're listening and yet the Jesus thing that's cool you know but but over time all we really begin to hear wah wah and because what we're really thinking about is something else and jesus knows this he knows this about us and so as we continue on in our series on the parables of the kingdom Jesus this whole parable is that we're looking at today in Matthew 13 as Jesus is going to call us out on how we listen and paying attention to how we listen once you get out your Bibles with me and turn to the book of Matthew Matthew's first book in the New Testament pretty easy to find use your table of contents if you can't find it and maybe just by way of a reminder this is a we're right in the middle of summer the BYOB project you remember this bring your own Bible how's that going for you awesome good so remember we kind of shifted how we do things if you're a regular attender we ask you to bring your own Bible we think it's for your own spiritual well-being that you have your own Bible that you bring here with you if you're a guest or a visitor we have Bibles at the the tables entrances when you come in there's always Bibles at the back of the room this be why BYOB so we're in this series now the parables of the kingdom and for the rest of the series now we're going to be camping out in Matthew chapter 13 this is the largest collection of Jesus's teachings his parables about about the kingdom let's dive in here chapter 13 verse 1 that same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it while all the people stood on the shore and he told them many things in parables this is a classic scene here Jesus has been around for a while now he's attracting large crowds and this is a very clever way of actually creating an amphitheater right so you get a bunch of people on the shore and then you get in a boat and your water your water your voice can carry over the water you know to everybody it's a great idea and he begins teaching no let's just stop real quick here and let's let's do a little quiz for how well we have been listening to Jesus so far so don't answer out loud but this is just a little little question get yourself going if you were there on that day on the on the shore or any other day you heard Jesus teaching what do you guess you would hear Jesus talking about on an average day what do you think what do you think you would hear him talking about or this would be even even more kind of poignant question if you had to summarize the message of Jesus in one sentence that all his teachings all his message in one sentence what would you do what would you say what would you say because some of you are like I have no clue and great welcome to Blackhawk it's good to have you here there's a viewer thing like okay I might maybe love love that's probably pretty good candidate right love God love people golden rule do to others as you would have them do to you something like that and those are great guesses memorable teachings of Jesus but dead wrong dead dead wrong so those are important teachings but nowhere near the center those teachings float around the orbit but there is one main center you read any of the Gospels and you get it loud and clear if you're listening if you're listening turn back a few pages with me to chapter 4 of Matthew Matthew chapter 4 look at chapter 4 verse 17 this is Jesus the beginning of Jesus's gump coming into the public eye public mission chapter 4 verse 17 from that time on Jesus began to preach repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near look at the next paragraph what does he do he calls a group of followers he's forming a little nucleus of what will become the Jesus Movement look at verse 23 Jesus went throughout Galilee teaching in their synagogues proclaiming the good news of what of the kingdom healing every disease and sickness among the people news about him spread spread everywhere go down to chapter 5 right next paragraph now when Jesus saw the crowds crowds formerly around Jesus he goes up on a mountainside he sat down the disciples came to him he began to teach he said blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven turned forward with me to chapter 9 a few pages forward chapter 9 verse 35 of chapter 9 he's a good old fashioned Bible study here all right here we go verse 35 Jesus went throughout all the towns and villages teaching in their synagogues proclaiming the good news of what the kingdom healing every disease have we found have we found our culprit here yes pretty good candidate the kingdom the kingdom of heaven is the phrase of the crews in Matthew and the other Gospels it's the kingdom of God it's the same exact thing no difference it's just different ways of frame phrasing the same idea the kingdom any given day you hear Jesus teaching this is what he's talking about this is the core of his message if you read through the Gospel of Matthew alone and you just highlight every time Jesus talks about the kingdom this is what you will find all of the read there is every time Jesus mentions the kingdom in the Gospel of Matthew is this a lot this is a lot this is Jesus's main message and if this is news to you then it just shows you that we have not been listening very carefully to Jesus we've been here our religion this where they go to church then but we haven't are we actually listening because this is what he's talking about he's talking about the kingdom and we say okay great kingdom of God is here what does that mean like what on earth does that mean so John rosensteil Matt kind of an impacted us a little bit each week and we're going to every week because every parable that we're looking at in this series is Jesus unpacking what it means that the kingdom of God is here so we need clear thinking when it comes to this because most of us if we are familiar with the language of kingdom or kingdom of God I imagine most of our languages are ideas pretty fuzzy it's mushy what does that mean what does that about so it's very simply I think maybe a visual might help here so John used this a couple weeks ago so the Bible tells the story it's the story of the kingdom and uses this metaphor of God as king he's the creator god he makes a good world and God rules over his creation by appointing these divine image bearing creatures humans and they will mediate God's rule and it will be the kingdom of God and it will be perfect right and a place of peace and harmony and so on and how long does this last like a page and a half okay in the Bible so not very long so the idea is that the humans who are entrusted to steward the kingdom of this world we become corrupt something breaks inside of us there's this inward turn towards selfishness and dysfunction is birthed and born out of this and conflict and violence and so on and the whole thing just begins to fall apart it results in a world that looks like ours the biblical authors have lots of names for this world they call it the old creation they call it this age where this present age the biblical authors call it the kingdom of this world but the biblical story holds this hope out that God has not abandoned his creation he's committed to and he's committed to restoring it and rescuing it and so the biblical authors speak of God's kingdom or of the new creation the God is going to restore our world and make all things right again one day now you look at this this image and many people think Christians non-christians whatever many people think that Christianity teaches that the whole point of becoming a Christian is about evacuating the old creation and like jetpacking into the new creation and that happens maybe when you die that happens when Jesus returns whatever and the old creation goes to hell in a handbasket now that's fine if you think that the only problem was thinking that is the Bible okay so don't read the Bible if you like are comfortable with what you believe so it'll mess up everything you believe so Jesus does not say yeah repent because we are all going to the kingdom of heaven that's not what he says what does he say says the kingdom of God is where is here is here now it's here now what Jesus saying is much more interesting than than this idea so what Jesus is saying depict it visually like this that that the kingdom is invading earth that heaven has come crashing into Earth and that the long-awaited day of God bringing about his new creation it's not far distant anymore it's here now in Jesus in what he's saying and what he's doing in the movement that he is starting and so Jesus is saying the new creation is right here being birthed in the midst of the old broken one in the midst of your broken dysfunctional lives God wants to do something new and this is good news yes this is good news he says its proclaiming the good news of the kingdom it's here in me and what I'm doing Jesus says but it's not good news for everybody right because what what this means is that all of our old creations all of the junk inside of us the sin the dysfunction that will have no place in God's new world and that has no place in the new creation that Jesus is bringing about the message of the kingdom is a message of judgment and of salvation it judges us and it evaluates all I like whacked-out ways of living and treating each other this is wrong stop this that's the way of deaths it's the way of destruction there's a whole new way to live and to be humans it's the way of following Jesus and when you when you repent and when you follow Jesus there's salvation and hope the message of the kingdom is good news and bad news it depends on your heart depends on the state of your heart and jesus knows this and this is the message that he goes around announcing is the same message that the whole Bible is talking about now okay Jesus going around clearly we've established that he's sharing the story announcement of the kingdom how are people responding to this message will you read through Matthew 11 and 12 which he places strategically right before chapter 13 and 11 and 12 naturally okay so sorry that was I didn't think that would be funny I don't know so every story in Matthew 11 and 12 is of somebody responding to Jesus some John the Baptist he's like really like I had some other ideas about how the kingdom was gonna come and really Jesus are you sure you're the one and then you get other people who were totally fans of Jesus they think he's like a Wonder worker traveling circus love to have him around other people are scared to death of him other people are indifferent to him and other people look at chapter 12 some good chapter 12 verse verse 14 the Pharisees the religious leaders what do they what's their response to Jesus in his announcement the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus they hate him because he's calling them out the bankruptcy of their religious rigmarole and so Jesus stands in for the crowd back to chapter 13 now he's got a whole crowd of people in front of him some people hate him some people love him some people are indifferent to him some people are don't know what they think about him and he says he says the whole story tells a little story and this is the story that he tells verse three a farmer went out to sow his seed I mean as he was scattering the seed some fell along the path and the birds came and ate it up some fell on rocky places where it didn't have much soil minutes sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow but when the Sun came up the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no root other seed fell among thorns which grew up and choked the plants and still other seed fell on good soil where it produced a crop hundred sixty thirty times what was Sun do you have ears you should listen she listened and what okay so imagine you're in the crowd you're in the crowd and you're like am I in the right place alright so I came to hear this like Jesus of Nazareth who claims to be the Messiah like he says the kingdom of God is here and he has powers so I just heard a little lecture on like agriculture and seeds and farmers and birds what is going on here to some people they hear the parable and they go ah I see what's going on here other people they hear the parable and [Music] it's not true they're not listening and I listening the keys right here in verse nine this little phrase Jesus has whoever has ears let them let them hear this is a common phrase Jesus uses strategically he uses it to indicate that what he just said the cookies are not on the bottom shelf so to speak so that the meaning of what he just said doesn't lay on the surface you have to dig for it you've got to work for it if you're lazy or you don't care you're not gonna it's not gonna make any sense but if you if you sense something you resonate with the message of the kingdom you're gonna be drawn like I think I see what he's saying here and so what is he saying do people get it do his closest followers get it can look at verse 10 his disciples is a little small nucleus here the disciples came to him and they asked what are you doing Jesus why are you speaking to the people in parables this is a PR disaster right like you're the Messiah you'd like why don't you just be clear about what you who you are and what you're doing there's a very good question what is Jesus up to he responds he says because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven they've been given to you but not to them who's the vehm in that statement them so memories got these got these crowds of people who are in the crowds a bunch of people who want to kill him a bunch of people who are totally indifferent to him or doubt him somehow were to kind of think he's an interesting kind of fun to be around but I don't know whatever and then some people who who sense there's something really going on here they're drawn in and Jesus says to those whose hearts are hard who have already rejected me like you read about in chapters 11 and 12 to them the kingdom is going to make no sense whatsoever it's gonna be like a sea hidden secret and so I tell parables so that it stays hidden to them because they've already shown they don't want to hear what I'm saying but for those who pursue right for those like the disciples who say there's something going on here what Jesus what are you saying here I I think I think I maybe understand and they probe and they go deeper for those the secrets will be revealed that's what he says in the next first a little proverb he says whoever has will be given more and will have an abundance whoever does not have even what they do have will be taken from them for those who have an open heart and mind and want to receive what Jesus is saying they'll be given more and the parables will draw them in but for those who do not have they've rejected Jesus they're too into their own deal they're just hearing wah wah wah wah wah they're actually not listening Jesus says then whatever then the parables will take away their understanding whoa so get this this is kind of crazy like whatever image of Jesus parables you hand from growing up or whatever like we maybe think they're like helpful little teaching tools you know to help people understand and Jesus is saying no no no they're actually the parables have a dual function two people whose hearts are open they'll draw them in make them ask questions to people whose hearts are close and hard it will reinforce the hardness of heart which is what he says he goes on he says this is why I speak to them in parables because you know they're here to see me you see but they don't see their hearing they're hearing words wah wah but they don't actually hear or understand and this is fulfilling what the prophet Isaiah said you will be ever hearing but never understanding you will be ever seeing but never perceiving why what is it that makes someone unable to hear what another person is saying okay like what is it what's going on in me when I am NOT hearing Jessica I'm caught up with my own agenda I think I already know what I need to know whatever and I'm just not like looking at anybody else outside myself which Jesus here calls and Isaiah the prophet here calls a hardness of heart their hearts are calloused and they can hardly hear with their ears they've closed their eyes otherwise if they did see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts they would turn and I would heal them so this is it's crazy this crazy reaction that Jesus has when he sees that people are rejecting him he's not going to force it he will simply respond in a way that keeps the ball in their court and they'll respond however they're gonna respond based on their heart but to people who are open he's right there drawing them in giving you more insight more understanding so he says to the disciples he says blessed are your ears because they see your ears because they hear truly I tell you many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see and didn't see it and hear what you hear and did not hear it Jesus is forcing people to listen as he tells the parable he's forcing people to listen this is sort of like if Jessica once she picks up that I'm not treating her like the queen of the world anymore you know and she can tell that what all I'm hearing wah wah wah wah so maybe you've done this before you throw in some crazy sentence as like a little test you know so Roman and I we're gonna fly to Mars tomorrow you know we're gonna eat ice-cream on planet Mars right and how if I it's just super to say like the game is up you know I'm saying like a cot red-handed so but how does she know if I'm listening am i say what oh I'm you got me you got me I'm sorry I'm sorry I wasn't listening jesus' that's what the parables do that's what the message of the kingdom does it confronts people and based off of their response they will either reject it or were accepted this is very profound was profound inside Jesus expected that many people would not listen to him and he's not gonna force the issue he's gonna allow them to respond in whatever way their hearts want to respond and and so here's what we're gonna do we're gonna finish reading through his explanation of the four soils but this is how this text I believe comes alive to us is that Jesus we all come in here from different places today we all have a story we bring in and our ears may be wide open or something God's doing something in your life and you're just a girl grief or what's next you may be like so bored with the religious tea or whatever and you're on the verge of everything Jesus has to say becoming wah wah wah wah wah wah Jesus has us pegged he knows this and so every one of us fits into one of these descriptions of the soils and he's gonna call us out here as we read through them was dive in verse 18 listen then to what the parable of the sower means when anyone hears the message of the kingdom and does not understand it the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart this is the seed sown along the path so you remember the first seed came along the path it's hard to ground the seed can't get into the dirt at all and it's on the surface birds come and take it away so this is someone who does not understand the message of the kingdom you know in English we hear that and we think oh they don't they can't grasp it intellectually or something and that is not what's what's going on here in in in Hebrew this is a good one to know what parties so in Hebrew there is no word for brain ancient Hebrew this is a great matter where do you understand and know things in your heart so to understand is about a whole life grasp and response and someone who hears the message of the kingdom right and it confronts them on their brokenness and their dysfunction you know and it says you need to be rescued you need grace and for someone with an impenetrable heart they're like no I don't what are you talking about so I'm just fine the way that I am I don't need to be rescued who's this Jesus guy telling me what to do yuh-huh was it impenetrable and Jesus says something even more kind of hunting here with his image of the birds he says if if the message of the kingdom is the only source of hope and rescue that we have rescue through Jesus and you reject that your heart is hard then then you're opening yourself to two forces that are at work in our world deep dark mysterious forces there our work to destroy everything that is good in God's world and you open yourself up to that when your heart is hard because you don't absorb the very thing that can save you and help you so who wants to be that soil now notice here one important clarification who in the storyline so far is that soil totally rejected Jesus wants to kill him the most religious people in their culture so this is not a matter of being religious or irreligious the most religious upstanding people in their community are the ones who are having the seed stolen by dark powers this scary thought next soil verse 20 the seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once seize it with joy yes I'm on the J train like totally down for Jesus Facebook fan done like I'll come to all comments of a Christian this is great it's great the Jesus thing but since they have no route because remember the shot the soil shallow they don't have any route and it lasts just a short time when trouble when persecution comes because of the word they quickly fall away so this is somebody there they're kind of in the religious community they're kind of down for the whole thing or whatever but but when it comes down to it they have to make a choice so someone at work or another student or whatever that he or she solicits you and are you gonna sleep with him or her or are you gonna follow Jesus are you gonna take the high road and then follow Jesus is called to sexual purity that that's the way of new creation to truly be human and what you gonna do you know that's just one time and you play the grace card you know God will forgive me shower the shower there's no real commitment there won't last the seed falling among thorns refers to someone who hears the word they hear it they get it but the worries of this life the deceitfulness of wealth it chokes the word it makes it unfruitful so this this soil is also their Facebook fans of Jesus they hear it they like it they're down for it but the problem is that the gospel the good news of the kingdom is not the only thing growing in their life there's lots of other things growing there too weeds and thorns and the problem with weeds and thorns is that they take up all of the soil and lights and water and energy and they leave no room for anything else so he names two things anxiety and greed right ambition for accumulating material wealth or whatever but but he gives other lists of things these these thorny things whether it's bitterness or unforgiveness emotional just dysfunction in our lives and he's saying you can't expect the kingdom to bear fruit you can't expect new creation of birth in your life if you keep all the junk around you got to deal with it do something about it start a weed pulling business something you know like I do it the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word they grasp it they understand it a whole life response this is the one who produces a crop yielding hundred 60 thirty times what was sung this person hears it they get it it transforms them how do you know how do you know that someone is good soil he just gives one criteria here it's a metaphor how do you know what is their life producing what is their what is their life producing just look at their life like don't look at their words don't look at their facebook status look at how they live look at their day to day choices what are they doing with their lives how do they treat people what are their priorities how do they make decisions what are they after in life that'll tell you they'll tell you so the Apostle Paul he puts it this way and he calls it the fruit of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians chapter five okay here we go God's Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives love self giving action for the benefit of someone else joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness self-control do you have more of this in your life than you did a year ago this it's very practical what is your life growing if it's growing the opposite of all of these things Jesus is chanting in your face right here saying are you let are you actually listening or are you really about some other agenda do I have more of this going on that I did a while ago how do you know what's your life growing so man I don't know where you're at today this text jumps from the first century to the 21st century very quickly and Jesus is challenging us are you are you what are you hearing when you hear the message of the kingdom wah wah wah wah were you actually listening actually listening so you you may realize immediately what kind of soil you are and and God help us if we were never able to change the kind of soil that we are right so the whole point is that we are driven to our knees and we ask God to make me into good soil help me repent help me with a weeding project so I don't know where you're at today I don't know how this is a word of God to you but it is and Jesus is challenging you to listen let me close this with an over to prayer Lord we we want to be thankful when you call us out god we recognize that your kingdom the life the hope the goodness the grace that you want to bring into our world into our lives God it exposes how fall how short we we fall of of what you've made us to be God I pray for all of us my brothers and sisters that you would give us ears to hear you would make our hearts open receptive you would give us understanding and insight and draw us into the life of your kingdom that's what's happening right here in our midst we can pray with hope because of Jesus and we pray in his name amen

Channel: Tim Mackie Archives

Views: 37,770

Rating: 4.9087949 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: z172Yr071YI

Length: 42min 48sec (2568 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 06 2017