Brother Gary Sunday Evening 7/13/14

Brother Gary Sunday Evening 7/13/14

When Luke told of this passage on the good ground, he told how Jesus was going from city to city and it was the burden of Christ to preach and show the glad tidings of the Word of God.

God has a very positive message through His Word for every honest and good heart. 

There is the message of Judgment that is still true; we don’t take away from that.  Jesus was going from village to village to tell the good news.  There were those with Him, there was a multitude there and Jesus gave the message of the sower and the seed.

Luk 8:15  But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

It is a choice to be good ground.  Everyone here was born with a nature that caused us to be wayside, stony or thorny soil.  We were born an innocent child with a nature to sin.  If anything would have happened to us as a child we would have gone to heaven. 

Good ground is a choice.  You might feel that when you came into this world there were a lot of things that were against you.  You might have been born without knowing who your dad was.  You may have been the step child or the unloved one.  We didn’t all have teachers that would have deserved four or five stars.

We make a choice to be good ground.  Jesus prayed for everyone that would believe and hear the gospel. 

You may have had a lot of things against you but that is life.  We want to talk about what was for us.  We had Jesus praying for us.  We can thank God for it.  When peter was having a hard time getting rid of whatever soil he was, he failed God and Jesus said, “Peter, I have prayed for you.”

When you feel that you are struggling in a lose-lose battle, you are only so if you have chosen to be wayside, thorny, or stony soil.

The church prayed and there was an earthquake, but the church is still a praying church.  They still pray, believe God, and still have a prayer meeting.

There is a number in this audience that had praying parents or grandparents.  That is wonderful to have someone that prayed for us.  If you did not then the challenge is for you to be the one praying.

It takes humility, prayer, dying to self, but it is a choice to be good ground.  It is a choice to be wayside, thorny, or stony ground but it is a bad choice.  I haven’t seen any of the ones that are stony, wayside or thorny ground that I want to make a picture of ‘that it is a good life’.

Thank God for the praying teachers.  When we are teaching that is stressed.  We don’t believe in this thing of just bringing anything, we want something that comes down from heaven.

The song we sang said, “Open my eyes, open my ears, and then open my mouth”.  We are blessed to have individuals that are praying song leaders.  I love the way the body of Christ responds to being multi song leaders.  God gives a song in the night, in the morning, in the evening. 

We are happy to come to the house of God and hear the instruments playing, then the song leader gets up and says, “Let us turn to this song.”  It is not one that was sent out all over the United States to be sung today, but it is the one that they got before God and said, “Dear God give me a song from you.”

It is not talent that counts, we are thankful for the talent that we have, we challenge you to know how to do what you do and to know how to do it with the Spirit of God. 

Thank God for praying song leaders and praying choir.  We choose to be good ground.  Thank God for praying men and women of all language. 

When we get to heaven people of every language will be worshipping God.  I am limited to the English language and limited in the English language, but I pray for men and women everywhere.  I pray for them because I want them to be blessed and serving God just as we want to be blessed and serving God.

Good ground has the attitude, “I will let the tools prepare my ground.” 

If you have a very big garden you need some kind of a tiller.  There are times in your life that you feel that you are being tilled. 

You think, “I am seeking after God, I want to be good ground and please God.  I want to draw closer and follow closer after God.  I want to be like the writer of 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd John.”  He got old and they packed him to the house of God but He wanted to be there.  He wanted to be there because he had allowed the tools of God’s Word in his life.

Wherever we are placed there can be good for us spiritually there.  John was in the Isle of Patmos. 

The shovel: whatever good you can get out of your life, you have to dig out the stones.  We get the rock into a bucket and into the pickup.  It is the same spiritually; we have to get the ground so that it is ready to receive the seed.

The rake:  We have to have the rake.  It is good for me to rake in what is preached for me and not rake it over on someone else. 

We need to have the wheel barrow to haul some stuff away.  Don’t get it where you always look at it and say, “I gave up so much to serve Jesus.”

Good ground is ground that takes responsibility.  I will take responsibility, I will have my bible, I will read my bible, I will have devotions, I will have my song book.  I will read my song book. 

Church, have a song book.  I don’t care if you take one of the castaways from the church and cut out songs, it is such a treasure.  I get out songs once in a while. 

Have a few songs written in your own hand writing.  It is so wonderful to see a song written in my mom’s handwriting.  It is wonderful to see a message that my dad wrote in the back of his bible.

It is good to write stuff down.  You need to know when you planted this so that you can plant the next year.  Which beans produced?  “When I was going through this trial, this helped me, it helped me to hear the testimony brought by this saint.” 

Study your bible, know how Genesis connects to Revelations.

I will pray.  I will prioritize.  God has to be first.  Everyone here is busy.  That is life.  God has to be first. 

I will be instructed.  Every once in a while we need to have someone tell us, “You are hitting it a little too hard here.”  I remember when my boss told me that my wife just had a new baby I needed to go home and spend time with her.  I had thought that I needed to work hard.

I will be helpful.  There are so many needs.  We know the needs of our immediate family.  Every one of us, make sure you get out of your bubble.  We want you to love your family, but make sure that you reach out to someone else that is not related and you want to know.

He that hath an ear let him hear.  That on good ground are they which in an honest and a good heart got the seed in, got the rocks out, and the thorns out, and then having heard the Word keep it. 

Not just write the word down, say, “That is mine”, keep it.

Bring forth fruit.  It doesn’t say 30 or 60 fold.  I am thinking the maximum.  Bring forth fruit with patience. 

In our lives that fruit is brought forth with patience.  Take one step at a time.  You say, “I’m going to grow by leaps and bounds.” You will be like everyone else.  It will be inch by inch and if you have 36 of them you have made a yardstick.