Christian Responsibility | Mark 4:26-29

it is great to be with you this morning and to open God's Word it's always a joy that we get together on Sunday morning and open God's Word in it and so today we're gonna be because we can you just struck through the book of Mark and so we're in mark chapter four and we're gonna be looking at verses 26 through 29 and so if you have your Bible open up there if you didn't bring one there's a black one right there in the Pew in front of you we always say a gracile Church has elders our goal is to drive you to the Word of God so don't believe always what gets preached here search it for yourself and so take what gets what you hear search in God's Word and say is this actually true is this what God is actually saying and so we encourage you to do that and so as we look at our text today there was a word that kind of jumped out of the page for me and the word is responsibility so you hear that word responsibility responsibility responsibility well Webster 1828 defines the word responsibility as the state of being accountable or answerable do you feel the weight of responsibility I think there's something about when we just say the word right when you just hear the word you start to conjure things in your own imagination that you think of when you think responsibility some good maybe some not so good right my guess is whenever I say the word responsibility things come to mind perhaps it's somebody telling you to get a haircut in a job perhaps it's the weight you feel as a parent of a newborn the first time you take that newborn in your arms you look him or her in the face there's a weight of responsibility to that a weight of what do I do I don't know how I'm gonna do this again they don't come with a manual right and lots of different circumstances out there when it comes to kids with some kids you get pregnancy and you get 9 months - yeah maybe read some books which in the end really don't do you a lot of good anyway right you've had a few kids and we have four and so by the time you have four you realize that not one of them are the same and they all take different things our eldest daughter we adopted and so we actually got a call on a Sunday afternoon and picked her up the next day we were not on an adoption list or anything so we really got home and we didn't have a crib we didn't have clothes we had nothing we had somebody said well you had two arms there was a weight of responsibility that day as I looked in Rebecca's face as a 12 day old baby in like I don't know if we have any idea what we're doing here but there's a weight to that isn't there with four daughters now moving into the teenage years there's a whole different weight of responsibility and I think it's maybe harder actually used to think when they were little when they get older it's gonna get easier I start saying I don't think it gets easier just gets different maybe it's not as physically exhausting right because it's not up in the middle of the night changing diapers feeding and all that stuff it's now up in the middle of the night praying and struggling with decisions and man we really messed that one up there's this weight of responsibility that we feel and sometimes perhaps it's the way to responsibly the that you've been given maybe even given responsibility at work you've been given responsibility in some organization so responsibility looks like a lot of different things but I'd say there's a weight to responsibility you know in my life especially my work life I finally feel like people fall into one of two categories when it comes to responsibility one they try to avoid it at all costs so when given responsibility they're looking for how do I avoid it how do I just not have to be responsible for this and I think there's areas of my life I fall into this category like okay how do I just avoid that responsibility the other end of that pendulum is they take responsibility very easily and they take responsibility for everything they'll take responsibility for things that they don't even need to take responsibility for I'll be honest for the most part in my life I kind of fall into this category and I think it has some negative impacts especially in my work life I find that I fall into this so as I was thinking this last week in preparing the sermon I got to think about what are areas of my life where maybe I've taken responsibility that I just shouldn't have well before we moved back to Farmington I had a job managing a concrete block plant up in Colorado Springs and that plant would run 24 hours a day there were seasons where it ran seven days a week and yeah I was responsible for the profit loss of that business unit I had responsibility for a bigger picture stuff but you know there were times that I would wake up at 2:00 3:00 a.m. in the morning and I would wake up and be like the plan is running I need to be there it wasn't my responsibility there was a plant manager there were the guys running the machine a nobody I had no idea how to run the machine so as you can imagine I would show up there at 3 o'clock in the morning and the guys that were there were like what are you doing here I didn't benefit production I didn't benefit efficiency I probably was detrimental to be honest but for some unknown reason I felt this responsibility that oh it's running I got to be there and what I found is it was detrimental maybe not just to production it was detrimental to my marriage it was detrimental to my kids it was detrimental to a lot of other aspects might because I was trying to take responsibility for something that really wasn't my responsibility and so today we're gonna look at kind of these two sides of this coin of responsibility today we're going to look at three aspects of Christian responsibility there are things that biblically we are responsible for and here me there are things biblically there are things we are not responsible for those that are bent to grab responsibility today you should be challenged to let go and trust God for those of you that are bent to shirk responsibility you should be challenged to be obedient to that which God is calling you to there's responsibility that thing's God is calling you too so if you would open up your Bible and let's look at mark chapter 4 we're gonna look at verses 26 through 29 and we'll look at this the simple parable in just these three verses that Jesus taught so verse 26 starts it says and he said the kingdom of God is this if a man should scatter seed on the ground he sleeps and Rises night and day and the seed sprouts and grows he knows not how the earth produces by itself first the blade then the ear then the full grain in the year but when the grain is right at once he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come so again we see another parable as we're walking through all these parables in the book of Mark we see another parable where Jesus is teaching and he begins with this simple little phrase the kingdom of God so this is another parable talking about salvation we see Jesus used this agricultural language this is things that in this day and time the people would have been very familiar with yes we live in a town called Farmington like farming town but not a lot of farming going on right which is a little bit odd so most of us don't really know an agricultural if they were talking in oilfield terms we'd probably have a pretty good indicator maybe if Jesus came and taught in parables that's what he would use is Lowell failed because that's what we get when we live in San Juan County well these people in this generation this is what they understood they were an agricultural farming society they would have understood agriculture so in some ways this is actually a continuation of the parable that pastor Tim unpacked for several weeks ago as we looked at the types of soils in mark 4 verses 13 through 20 however this parable is not about the soil but it's really about the sower and it's about the seed so we have three points today and so the first so I want you to see that you are responsible you're responsible to share the gospel this is what we see in verse 26 so the first point is where is responsible to share the gospel so look at verse 26 it says so Jesus began in verse 26 saying the kingdom of God is at hand if a man should scatter seed on the ground so the question is what is the scattering of seed what are we talking about when we're scattering seed folks this is the believer this is you and me as believers in Christ sharing the gospel so yes if you're a believer in Christ what I mean by that you are a believer you're someone who's put their faith and their trust in their hope and Christ alone for salvation you've been saved by God's grace you have a responsibility to share the gospel this is not a professional responsibility this is not the sole responsibility of the pastor's of the elders I think in the American church through the 80s and 90s you know where I grew up in the church there was a sense of well that's the pastor's job to do that's who shares the gospel you know our job as believers is to pay and pray and the professional will do the work we say this is not the posture of gracile church this is not biblical either there was some sense growing up that you just need to invite people to church and the pastor will share will share the gospel from the pulpit this is not what the Word of God tells us to do there is a wait there's a responsibility as a believer in Christ that were called to and that calling is to share the gospel look with me to Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 through 12 that should be up here on the screen so we start to see some texts that show this and it says and he gave the Apostles the prophets the evangelists the shepherds and teachers to equip the Saints for the work of the ministry for the building up the body of Christ so I would argue that the scattering of seed on the ground the sharing of the gospel this is the work of the ministry this is the work of the ministry that the Apostle Paul is talking about when he's writing to the church at Ephesus this is what should we should be equipping and being equipped to do not just invite people to come to grace he'll invite people to go to church but we have interactions with people in our own lives day in day out whether we go to work whether we go to school wherever we go we have opportunities don't we we have opportunities to have faith conversations my kids started sharing that one of their music teachers this week is not a believer and he started sharing that his own kind of theological perspective that well all good people go to heaven not biblical right so we talked about and as a kid as 11 12 13 year olds what do you say to a teacher who you respect so we had this conversation they said well we could we could have said well you know all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and some of them we don't have to enter into an argument with people but we can say well the Bible says the Word of God says we can engage the heart the Bible doesn't need us to defend it it can defend itself so the calling on our life is to speak truth when these opportunities come about I think sometimes our instinct though is to shirk away right is when confronted by something where man there's an opportunity to share the gospel there's an opportunity to share our faith there's an opportunity to speak truth sometimes fall silent and folks this is where I think this morning we need to fill this weight of responsibility this way two responsibilities weird to scatter seed weird to share the gospel we see this also in Matthew chapter 9 verse 37 through 38 says then he said to his disciples the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest folks we are to be the laborers they were send into the harvest this starts by sharing the gospel scattering the seed we're sent into a dark world where yes the laborers are few the scripture tells us the laborers are few so folks if we're the laborers and this is what we're called to do we need to go be faithful laborers be faithful laborers to go and share the gospel to be ready to preach the gospel at all times there will be opportunities tomorrow I have no doubt in my own life there'll be an opportunity tomorrow in this way to fill is that what am I going to do with it because sometimes there are opportunities that present and I don't take advantage of it so I think the weight that I'm feeling this morning is what am I going to do tomorrow I love last week that Tim said sometimes it's easy to be light in a well-lit place it's like man that is a great analogy so how do we go and be light in a dark place and I think we could all agree that San Juan County for the most part is a dark place that needs you to be the light in wherever you go tomorrow whether that's in your home whether that's at work whether that's school wherever that might be God's laid on your life as a believer the responsibility to scatter the seed you know something to interest is as I was looking at this Texas week is the word scatter this is the Greek word Balogh it actually connotates to throw or let go of a thing without caring where it falls you know sometimes we see we think our responsibility in sharing the gospel has to be really pointed right well we're gonna size up who we're talking to we're gonna try and determine you know the soils of them are they hard soil a thorny soil because we make a lot of assumptions right well I'm gonna show the gospel with them and they're gonna get angry I'm going to show the gospel with them and they're just gonna tell me to be quiet that's not what this parable is telling us as probable is telling us go scatter the seed God's gonna be responsible for the soil so we shouldn't care where it falls again several weeks back we looked at soils some are good some are hard some are rocky summer thorny it's not our responsibility for the soil the responsibility that Jesus is telling us is weighty on us is to go share the gospel go scatter to the seed in all circumstances in all situations you're not responsible for what God is gonna do with the seed you're responsible to go spread the seed I think it's time that we stop making excuses but he'd stop making excuse me faithful to the responsibility that God has given us to go share the truth of who Jesus is pre-eternal came to earth lived a sinless life perfect as God and man died on the cross a brutal death was raised on the third day appeared to hundreds of people then ascended to heaven and now sits at the right hand of the Father this is the truth of the gospel we put our faith and trust in him alone it's by His grace were saved not by anything that we do we're not responsible for the seed or where it lands we're just responsible to go share so when was the last time you shared your faith with somebody how long has it been how serious do you take this responsibility how serious should you take this responsibility my challenge is for you to think about these three questions and to ponder those this week pray through those allow God to give you clarity is did this responsibility this weight that he's placed on you second let's look at the next responsibility which is to rest and trust God's sovereignty look at verses 27 through 28 and it says he sleeps again this is the sower he sleeps and Rises night and day and the seed sprouts and grows he knows not how the earth produces by itself first the blade then the ear then the full grain in the year so again here Jesus is talking about the sower of the farmer he scatters the seed and then he rests God is sovereign over all things including salvation not the believer so from some for some of us this is the easy thing just trust God and let him be responsible for those of us that fall into more type a personality maybe not so much we think we can control everything we like to control it analyze it to the nth degree so much that you feel if you say the wrong thing you'll mess it up and I think those that are wired this way sometimes we can be hesitant to share the Gospels like well what if I say the wrong thing what if I what if I say something that's it's not exactly the right thing it's like for a long time I would share the gospel maybe somebody wouldn't give their heart to Jesus I'd be like well what did I do wrong I think as we look at the text today it's God who does the saving it's God who's sovereign over all things so our responsibly the responsibility is to share the gospel and allow God to do the saving so I think this should give us comfort right and let me give you this comfort as you go and share the gospel the comfort is God is in control God is responsible for saving sinners not you I think it goes back to parenting a little bit you know sometimes we feel too responsible you know I think as a parent when things are not going well for your kids I'll give you a little piece you don't deserve all the blame you don't own all the blame when things aren't going well however the inverse is true too when things are going really well for your kids you probably don't deserve all the credit either I think this is part of that rest rest and knowing that we have a loving Savior who's sovereign over all things and we can rest in that this parables tell us trust and trust God just like the farmer that scatters the seed I can think about the farmer he doesn't go out and bury the seed and then every day he digs it up and he holds it up and looks at it to see what's going on and it takes it and puts it back down I went to college in Lubbock Texas where the camera with the stats were 25% of the world's cotton is grown in a 100-mile radius the Lubbock Texas so there's a lot of farming that goes on around there so a lot of my buddies in college came from farming families and some of them were farming thousands of acres so trust me every day they didn't go check on every seed and make sure that it was gonna it was gonna come up like it was supposed to that's silly right it's silly to think of that they planted the seed and they trusted God those that were dryland farming maybe more so than the guys that were wetland farming that were watering but the calling is for us to trust God to rest saying that the farmer knows he trusts God you trust God's gonna know what's gonna grow and what's not gonna grow we can see God's sovereignty we see this in Romans chapter 8 verses 28 through 30 which says and we know that those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose it's interesting this is a verse that gets used a lot out of context you know somebody's going through something hard and you'll just hear him say well you know God God knows he works all things together for good look at it in context and we know he works all things together for those were good for those who are called according to his purpose for those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son in order that he might be the first Hmong among many brothers in those whom he predestined he also called in those whom he called also justified and those whom he justified he also glorified it is God that opens our hearts to faith because it's he who predestined it's he who justifies it's he who glorifies for some of you this may give you anxiety but what I believe is that this should feel like a big giant warm blanket of grace you should find comfort and peace in this knowing that you can't mess up God's grace when you're faithful to share the gospel you can't mess it up because the responsibility lies in resting in God's grace knowing and trusting that he's sovereign over all things including salvation we see this language in the book of Ephesians as well it says Paul writes to the book in the church at Ephesus in chapter 1 verses 3 through 6 it says blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved it's God who does the work the choosing and the saving not us so after we share after we scatter the seed we can just rest and trust God so I was reading this week I loved what RC sprawls said about it he said I find it very comforting to know that this is how God's kingdom works this parable teaches me that the things I say and do though they seem infinitely insignificant to me may have eternal significance as God uses me in the building of his kingdom that's the way the kingdom is we often do not know what God does with our service we plant the seed go to bed and while we sleep God germinates the seeds so that life grows and eventually produces a full harvest then God Himself reaps for his own glory we simply need to forget about trying to see the fruit of our service immediately it does not matter if we ever see it we're called to take the light and let it shine and then let God do what it is whatever he pleases so today for all you control freaks like me rest rest and trust in our Sovereign Lord that's a different weight of responsibility isn't it they said for some of us it's easy for some of us it's really difficult just to let go and trust God lastly we see responsibility responsibility to enjoy the fruit of the harvest to enjoy and grow together look at verse 29 verse 29 says but when the grain is ripe at once he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come so we scatter the seed God does the work to germinate it and then God collects the harvest for us to get to enjoy we have a ability to enjoy the fruit of God's harvest I believe this looks like loving one another love one another love God love others I believe it's time that the church becomes a place to belong and beloved pastor Tim has started saying to us and I think you told me that you actually stole it from Steph that the church is a place that first we should feel like we belong then we believe then we behave so first you belong people have this innate desire to live in community and I really think because of the garage door opener it's a harder place to feel like you belong there was a time and place where we knew our neighbors we lived in community there were big porches people got together we live in a world where we go to work we go home we use the garage door opener to open up we pull our car in we shut the garage we don't even know our neighbors so people have an innate desire to be known and to belong and I'm sorry but the American church is done in disservice that lots of conversation was recently with people that feel wounded by the church they feel hurt by the church because the so many circumstances the church was a place that well if I clean myself up and I wear the right clothes I look the right way so again then I change you know I'm behaving then I can belong this is not what the Word of God says God does the saving all are sinners all have fallen short of the glory of God look who Jesus went to right the prostitutes the tax collectors yahoo is hardest on the Pharisees the religious elite grace Hill Church we should be a place where people belong where they walk in the front doors and they feel loved then they hear the truth of the gospel from you God saves them and in time the Word of God transforms our life that were changed and yeah you can say behave just because it rhymes right with one of the bees I like that word transformation better is that we're changed because of God's Word or change because we live in a faith family who loves us that we can be true to who we are and God can change us because we say we're just sinners saved by grace that we wouldn't be a church that it's all about being buttoned up and looking the part and hiding our sin no we bring our sin from the darkness out into the light that we might repent of it and be changed and be transformed that we can't turn 180 degrees from it that's the calling on our life is that we'd be a people where people feel among us they can belong they would come to a relationship with Jesus Christ with the sharing of the gospel they would live transformed lives and we would do that together so we see this fruit in mark chapter 12 verses 29 through 31 it says jesus answered the most important is here o Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul with all your mind with all your strength the second is this you shall love your neighbor as yourself there is no other commandment greater than these so the Pharisees went to Jesus and said so teacher tell us so what is the greatest of the commandments and they're looking to trip him up that's what they were looking to do but Jesus summed it all up for us is this who we are as believers as this who we are as Grace Hill Church that we would love God and we would love others we see it reiterated in first John chapter 4 verse 7 which says beloved let us love one another for love us from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love folks there's a responsibility as a believer in Christ the responsibilities that we would enjoy we would love one another and grow together because of Christ we should be the most joy-filled people on the planet shouldn't we because we know where our hope lies in Christ alone home times do you walk into a church and it's just a bunch of sour faces there should be a sense of joy when we get together that we get to live life together when we gather in homes when we gather on Sunday morning that we enjoy one another because we're growing together it's a place where we can confess sin in a safe place to one another and repent of it and be changed and be transformed we'll see in the New Testament there are 59 one and others 59 of them let me share a few of them with you it says be at peace with each other live in harmony with one another be devoted to one another stop passing judgment on one another when you come together to eat wait for each other you know what's actually repeated 15 times and the one another's love one another this is the harvest this is the harvest that we get to enjoy that as believers we should love one another we should be those people that go into our workplace and people like man there's something different about that guy there's something different about her that they feel loved bias not because of who we are not because of the way were wired because we've been loved by the Father he shows us called us his we've been saved by his grace and this should change our lives that we love one another if we as the church would live this out I believe that we would scatter more seed than we would know what to do with so I think it's time that as relievers we take responsibility responsibly to scatter the seed of the gospel to all that we come in contact with to be responsible to rest and trust that God is sovereign and lastly to enjoy the harvest to love one another the band's gonna come and we're gonna pray and we're gonna take communion together as a faith family so as the band comes take time maybe consider these things am i scattering the seed of the gospel as I come in contact with people as there's opportunities for faith conversations am i scattering the seed of the gospel am i resting in Christ knowing that he's gonna do the saving do you see that as a sense of peace so that I'm not worried about sharing the gospel like I'm gonna do something wrong am i loving well am i enjoying the harvest am i enjoying my brothers and sisters in Christ am i enjoying those that I come in contact with am i loving God loving others so take a few moments and pray through that and then we're gonna take communion we're gonna see the perfect sacrifice where Jesus went to a cross and died for us Euan come and taste and know that god is good father we just praise you for who you are lord thank you for your love for us father forgive me when I don't scatter seed father that first and foremost I would be faithful lord I thank you for this responsibility and well this weight that you've placed on me you've placed on on us as believers Lord we praise you that you are sovereign over all things and that we can find rest in that Lord helped me to love well or forgive me when I fail you when I don't love my wife well when I don't love my children well my brothers and sisters in Christ Lord forgive me Lord that we as gray cell church would be a people seeking to love you and love others we ask all these things name of Jesus amen you

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Keywords: christian, responsibility, christian songs, improves your listening skills, learning by listening, telugu christian message, christian life, why do christians work, christian living, christian issues, christian abuse, christian views, christian astrologers, christian videos, wikipedia audio article, reduce eye strain, how to live the christian life, telugu christian, sergeant mark iv, text to speech, bible study in gospel of mark

Id: _nMeF9h_yN8

Length: 36min 27sec (2187 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 13 2019