Bro Gary Sunday Morning 1/15/12
Mar 4:1 And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.
Mar 4:2 And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,
Mar 4:3 Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:
Mar 4:4 And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.
Mar 4:5 And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:
Mar 4:6 But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
Mar 4:7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
Mar 4:8 And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.
Mar 4:9 And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Mar 4:10 And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable.
Mark was an unusual man. It is thought that he was a short man. I thought of Bro Bill Cornelison; (I talked to him recently he sent his love to the saints here.) Both of these brothers have a love for God and we certainly appreciate that.
Mar 4:14 The sower soweth the word.
The one that began sowing is Jesus Christ. He sows the word.
The four types of soil:
Mar 4:15 And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.
How sad it is when men and women are blessed to hear the word of God and their ground is hard ground for whatever reason. Life and sin and the devil cause men and women to be wayside soil. There is not anyone that we are dealing with that the devil will not endeavor to make wayside soil. We can pray that they will fall on the rock and be broken so they will not be wayside soil or the rock can fall on them and they be ground to powder so they will not be wayside soil.
In the Gospel Day, God uses His servants to sow the seed, but it is the commission of Jesus Christ and without Him we cannot sow the seed.
“Heaven holds all to me: Out on the hills of that beautiful country…”
There is a beautiful country. Ecclesiastics wrote He has made everything beautiful in its time. But there is an enemy that steals the Word of God. He comes immediately, the Bible says, and takes away the word sown in their hearts.
Mar 4:16 And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness;
Mar 4:17 And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended.
Those that are stony ground allow the word to come to them but they don’t realize how precious it is. They say, “I know all that stuff, I’ve heard it before.”
They have no root in themselves. May God challenge every one of us in this audience to be emptied of frivolousness and be full of Him and to have moral fiber and be good ground.
Help me to when the word of God comes realize how precious the Word of God is. I am convinced that there is no beauty, peace, or satisfaction without God.
The lesson of the rabbit and the carrot has been given over and over again. The enemy will treat us as a rabbit and dangle something out there that promises to satisfy. There is nothing in this world that will satisfy besides the Word of God.
Those with stony ground may have the attitude, “I’m thinking of trying this ‘being born again’ thing.”
To everyone that understands the power of the Word of God and the attitude of the Word of God, when God speaks His Word to our soul, we are to treat it with honor and respect.
I want to empty myself of not having root in myself and I want to have moral fiber. I’m amazed at the attitude people have toward the Gospel. When hard times come they give God up. As the disciples said when asked if they also would leave, “Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.”
Afflictions mean difficult times and distresses. They come to people that are not saved as well as to those that are saved. There is a lot of stress in the world among sinners today. Millions are stressed out because of life and choices.
Persecutions: There will be those that will pick you out to pick on. Will a little pain cause you to give up Jesus and eternal life? Will it cause you to turn your back on the God that sent His only begotten son? I think not. ‘All that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.’
The world isn’t very nice to people. People get in the bondage of it and suffer from the world yet they will not suffer for Jesus.
Mar 4:18 And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word,
Mar 4:19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.
I won’t tell you that I battle the cares of life every day, but there will be many occasions as we go though our days that we feel the cares of life. We’re responsible people and realize that there are things that we need to get done. We must never allow the cares of life to choke the word. It must be a priority in our life not just to have what would be stated ‘devotions’. We need devotions, but we need to reach past that to ‘ministering to the Lord’.
I’m very impressed with Mark, Barnabas, and Saul.
Ministering is worshipping God, praising God and being thankful for what God has done for us individually and collectively. As we are there ministering then pray, “God I’m so thankful for you is there something that you’d like me to give myself to, to separate myself to because I want to serve God.” Sin was going to destroy me in every way.
When we’re worshipping, praising, and thanking God, It will be in our memory: the cares of life, the deceitfulness of riches. In this audience this morning and in the economy of 2012 as I see it, I don’t see any value in trying to be rich in this world. The deceitfulness of riches has left men and women stingy, tight, miserable, blinded, and with an attitude that everyone is out there trying to get something from them. I have a heavenly father and the little that people have of this worlds goods? I don’t want it.
Don’t let the deceitfulness of riches deceive you. Money will leave you empty on the inside. The love of money is the root of all evil. When people cram and scram and do all those things to get rich they leave undone what they should do. Love God, Love your fellowman, think not “What can I do for myself?”, but “God what can I do for mankind?”
Everywhere I go I see men and women’s lives ruined by the world.
Mar 4:20 And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.
The word of God is true 2012. “These are they…” There will be the plural, God will give us fellowship.
If there is someone that you are working with and desiring to help get saved, they may say, “If I get saved then I’ll be so alone.” God’s word works in the plural: “These are they…”
May God help me and you to realize how blessed we are when God sends His word to our heart. This is different than how the stony ground receives the word. In the stony they take it but don’t receive it as so precious.
Forever the Word of God is settled in heaven. When God sends His word we are the most blessed individuals. If He sends correction then we are blessed. God sends a word of encouragement over and over again.
When we’re standing in the ways and there is a decision that we must make, God draws near in the valley of decision. WE want to make a decision not with the direction of my flesh or from the direction of the people around me. “God what would you have me say or do? You know the present and where the decision will lead me to. You know where it will lead if I make it this way or where it will lead if I make it that way.”
Stand in the way and ask for the Old Paths.
When God gives His word, the good ground receives it. You have every expectancy to believe that God is going to send His word to help you make your decision.
Merchandisers are wise in the world. Everyone here that has ordered from a seed company in 2011, probably before 2012 came they sent you a catalogue. They want you to begin thinking while the ground is frozen of what seed you want to put in the ground. If there is a seed you want then you’d better buy it early. The seed company wants to sell the seed early.
I don’t know how your garden was left last fall. Most gardeners in the fall or early spring begin thinking of what they need to add to it. They try to find out what that soil needs. It must be warm enough, wet enough, tilled enough, and have the proper nutrition or you will not have much of a garden.
Our soul is to be like a well watered garden. He wants our soul prepared by prayer and cultivation.
Sometimes our cultivation is from one another. Sometimes it is from the Sunday school teacher, sometimes from the pastor, sometimes from our husband or wife.
If you want to get a burden for young people, read Proverbs. It will break your heart because you can see how the enemy plans to ruin and wreck lives.
The good ground is prepared. It takes lots of work to prepare soil. Even if you tilled it last fall, the tiller will probably not go down to the depth you want it to if you just till it once.
Karen was telling me about a man that she read about that didn’t at first appreciate waking up early but “I learned that there is a remnant across the world that woke up early and now I appreciate it because I realize that I’m a part of the ‘they’ that are waking up early and reading in the Word of God.”
Last year we planted carrots many times and couldn’t get them to come up. Something happened but we kept planting. If there is a certain fruit that you want in your life, keep seeking.
The other day we ran out of carrots in the house and the choice was to either buy them or go out and dig some. It is cold out there and I’m getting to the age where I don’t like to be cold. But I didn’t want to have store bought carrots. I went out and began pushing aside the leaves and digging. It was hard to just stop with two or three carrots. There were carrots as big around as a fifty cent piece and seven or eight inches long.
We plant what we order and then wait to see what it is, because it isn’t always what the package says. God knows the seed and the production of it that everyone of us needs. The seed He sows is designed to produce in our lives.
You might be in this audience this morning and say that you feel that you need to deepen down spiritually. God has a way of causing you to go to the Word of God and allow that word of God to come into your soul and cause you to realize that it is time to grow up.
You may say, “Sometimes I feel myself whining to God.” I don’t like to hear children whine, I don’t like to hear myself whining to my wife, it is not a manly trait to whine. We adults don’t want to be whiners. We wouldn’t want to hear young people whining or the aged.
Malachi said in the word that God gave him, “They shall grow up as calves of the stall.” Peter instructs, “As new born babes desire the sincere word that you may grow thereby.” Paul says to, grow to the fullness of the stature of Christ.
However much that you are capable of producing in the year 2012 that is your challenge. You may have produced thirty fold last year, pray for God to send you some more this year because your ground is more prepared, you are stronger, God has talked to you about laying aside some things and you have laid them aside. If you were thirtyfold last year God will challenge you with sixtyfold this year.
Rom 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
Notice the words, “Servants to God.” I think I see that God is trying to help this pastor to grow a little bit. I’ve preached on being servants, here it says, “Servants to God.”
“God you’ve helped so much, help me to be a servant unto you.” He’s going to tell me to help souls and be an encouragement to one another.
“Bear ye one another’s burdens and so fulfill the Law of Christ.” As the church we want to know how to allow the saints to make an expression of their burden and it not be told outside of the body of Christ.
We want to be so trustworthy that Bro Bob can get up in prayer meeting and ask for prayer and not even think of telling you not to tell anyone. He knows that you won’t.
We bear one another’s burdens and become servants to God: Having fruit unto holiness. Many things God could do without us but He wants you and me to do it because we love our brother and sister and He wants us to have fruit to holiness and in the end everlasting life.
Am I good ground today? Will I receive that Word of God from God and take it to me and apply it to Gary?
Will the congregation apply the word to themselves and not say, “I’m sure that was meant for so in so.” Apply it to you.
The wages of sin is death. We are either going to be separated from God or separated to God. That is what death means.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
May our souls be so moved with gratitude for how God has moved in us that as His Word is spoken we are moved to get all our needs met. We can trust the seed of the Word of God to meet every need this morning.
The seed is sown, but only the ground that is good receives it with the thought, “This is for me, I’ll take it.”
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