Mark 4:1-9
This week we are going to talk about the soil with the thorns. I’m willing to bet that this soil is the most prevalent through out the world, especially for us here in America. Here is what Jesus says in verse 7, “Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.” The word goes out, springs up but doesn’t produce fruit because the thorns choke it out. What happens here is very similar to what happens to the seed in the rocky soil that we looked at last week. The difference in the two soils is what hinders the growth of the plant. Last week it was that the soil was shallow and the sun, or persecution, caused the plants to whither and die. In this circumstance it is the presence of thorns. And in verses 18 and 19 Jesus says that the thorns are the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things.
Have you ever had God speak to you and you get all fired up, but the next day your mind is filled with work or your spouse or your kids and you forget all about what God has said. This happens to me all the time, and not only to me. This is what I see most in the people around me. God tells us to stop worshiping possessions and the next week we have a new TV because that old one was just about to die. This is all silly and we are only justifying our sin to ourselves.
One of my favorite passages concerning this topic is Luke 21:34-36,
But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.
Just before Jesus says this he is instructing his disciples on the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem as well as the second coming of Christ when judgment will be brought on the whole earth. Jesus warns his disciples and I think that we should heed his warning. We must watch ourselves so that we aren’t so weighed down that when he comes back, we’re surprised. Not only are we surprised by the coming of our Lord, but we are not able to stand before him. This is not a good thing. We must cast aside the sin that so easily entangles and chase after Jesus, longing for the day that he returns not falling asleep and being rudely awakened.
I fear that we have become too complacent with our American Christianity. We live lukewarm lives in the name of grace and freedom. And we are under both, but Paul tells us that we are not to continue in our sin just because we are saved by grace. And pride in possessions is sin. The love the world is sin. If you ever want to doubt your salvation read 1 John. He says if you love the things of the world, you don’t love God. But we continue to justify our materialistic lives in the name of God’s blessing, when maybe really he has given us over to the wicked desires of our heart, and we are storing up wrath for ourselves on the Day of Judgment.
Stay awake! Don’t let the cares of the world weigh you down and keep the word of God from bearing fruit in your life. He knows you have needs but seek first his kingdom. “[cast] all your anxieties on him because he cares for you.” Trust in God and not in the comforts of the world. Bear fruit.
-Mitchell
Monday, April 26, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
It's not about who's teaching the message, it's about the message
Matthew 3:9
"And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father', for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham."
John Piper is my favorite pastor. I have been listening to him for a couple of years now, and I have really grown in my understanding and knowledge of God through his ministry. I am going to a conference later this year where he will be speaking, and I'm looking forward to it.
One of the reasons I am looking forward to it, is because it will be the only stateside speaking engagement he will hold all year. He is taking a sabbatical this year, and he may not even come back to the pulpit.
When I heard this, it filled me with sadness. I will miss hearing my pastor, for I consider him one of my spiritual fathers.
And when I heard yesterday that Francis Chan is stepping down from his pastorate, it made me sympathize for his flock out in California, and what they must be going through.
But as I've been reading through Matthew, and savoring and chewing on the words of the Master, it got me thinking. Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, are the only ones who do the teaching in Matthew. Jesus comforts his disciples when he tells them he will leave by promising them that the Holy Spirit will come and personally teach them in John 14:15-31.
And when the early church was trying to form factions around their favorite teacher, whether it was Paul or Peter or Apollos, the Holy Spirit rebuked the church through Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:4-9.
"For when one says, 'I follow Paul,' and another, 'I follow Apollos,' are you not being merely human? What this is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Aploos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who planst nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building."
I say all this to remind myself, and you guys, that whatever is good about church, whatever is uplifting, whatever is powerful about church, is God.
It's not our lesson.
It's not the preacher.
It's not the luncheon we have after the service, or the fellowship we have in the hallway.
These things are only good if and when the Holy Spirit breathes life into them.
This is why a good lesson at church stays with us for so long, when a good business meeting rarely carries it's weight for longer than a week. This is why a good preacher can show us something in the Scripture that will change our lives, and an equally good teacher at school can present an awesome lesson that will be forgotten at the end of the semester.
God is bigger than John Piper, or Francis Chan, or Andy Jobe, or Brett Crawford. I think he removes men like Piper or Chan to remind us that it is our Father in Heaven who does the work. We are just the messengers.
And lest we become worried that there will be nobody with the ability to carry on the ministry that these men had, remember the verse at the top. We all have hearts of stone, before God transforms them. If he ever needs a need filled, he just breathes life into another rock, and puts it to work.
Praise God!
-Brett
"And do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father', for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham."
John Piper is my favorite pastor. I have been listening to him for a couple of years now, and I have really grown in my understanding and knowledge of God through his ministry. I am going to a conference later this year where he will be speaking, and I'm looking forward to it.
One of the reasons I am looking forward to it, is because it will be the only stateside speaking engagement he will hold all year. He is taking a sabbatical this year, and he may not even come back to the pulpit.
When I heard this, it filled me with sadness. I will miss hearing my pastor, for I consider him one of my spiritual fathers.
And when I heard yesterday that Francis Chan is stepping down from his pastorate, it made me sympathize for his flock out in California, and what they must be going through.
But as I've been reading through Matthew, and savoring and chewing on the words of the Master, it got me thinking. Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, are the only ones who do the teaching in Matthew. Jesus comforts his disciples when he tells them he will leave by promising them that the Holy Spirit will come and personally teach them in John 14:15-31.
And when the early church was trying to form factions around their favorite teacher, whether it was Paul or Peter or Apollos, the Holy Spirit rebuked the church through Paul in 1 Corinthians 3:4-9.
"For when one says, 'I follow Paul,' and another, 'I follow Apollos,' are you not being merely human? What this is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Aploos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who planst nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building."
I say all this to remind myself, and you guys, that whatever is good about church, whatever is uplifting, whatever is powerful about church, is God.
It's not our lesson.
It's not the preacher.
It's not the luncheon we have after the service, or the fellowship we have in the hallway.
These things are only good if and when the Holy Spirit breathes life into them.
This is why a good lesson at church stays with us for so long, when a good business meeting rarely carries it's weight for longer than a week. This is why a good preacher can show us something in the Scripture that will change our lives, and an equally good teacher at school can present an awesome lesson that will be forgotten at the end of the semester.
God is bigger than John Piper, or Francis Chan, or Andy Jobe, or Brett Crawford. I think he removes men like Piper or Chan to remind us that it is our Father in Heaven who does the work. We are just the messengers.
And lest we become worried that there will be nobody with the ability to carry on the ministry that these men had, remember the verse at the top. We all have hearts of stone, before God transforms them. If he ever needs a need filled, he just breathes life into another rock, and puts it to work.
Praise God!
-Brett
Monday, April 19, 2010
The Parable of the Sower: There is no SPF 4000
Mark 4:1-9
If you remember from last week, we are talking about the parable of the sower. Last time we talked about the first soil mentioned in the parable, the path. This week we are going to look at the second type of soil Jesus mentions, the rocky ground. Verses 5-6 says,
Other seed feel on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and Immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root it withered away.
In this instance the word of God hits the dirt and a plant shoots up, but because the soil is so shallow the sun kills the plant, and it doesn’t produce any fruit.
So here is what it looks like in our lives. God speaks to you and says, “Stop looking at those other women and be faithful to your wife.” Or “Find your identity in me. Find your value in me, not in how you look or what other people think.” And you say, “Yes Lord! I am not going to do that anymore.” Your plant springs up. You get excited and you start to run forward. You no longer participate in the conversations about the new receptionist. You stop worrying so much about how your hair looks, and everything is good. But then the sun comes out. In verses 16 and 17 Jesus says,
And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. (ESV)
Your buddies start making of fun of you, or you hear those ladies whispering behind your back. This is the point where your plant is tested. And depending on the soil it is planted in, it will either live and produce fruit or it will die, whither and be burned. Our first response might be to try and hide from the sun, but there is no escape from it. Jesus says that the world will hate us. And like we talked about last week, Satan wants to destroy us. He is going to do everything he can to try and keep the word of God from bearing fruit. There is no escaping from the sun; it’s going to try and burn you. There is no SPF 4000. Luckily, the secret to saving the plant is not hiding it from the sun, but increasing the depth of the soil. So how can we make our soil deeper?
Psalm 1:1-3 says,
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. (ESV)
The psalmist tells us that the people who obey God and remain in him; those who mediate on God’s law day and night, they are the ones who produce fruit. So if your soil is shallow, spend time reading your Bible. Know what the word of God says, so when the sun comes out it does not burn you up. Paul calls the word of God the Sword of the spirit. We can fight with it. Your friends say, “Come on man, it’s just looking. It’s not like your doing anything.” And you can say, “Jesus says if you look at a woman lustfully you have already committed adultery with her in your heart.” Or maybe that voice inside your head tells you that people won’t like you if you look like that, and you can answer back, “I am not to let my beauty be external but internal as the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.” We can fight against Satan with the word of God, but we have to know it if we are to use it. There is a reason why Paul says to “take up” the sword of the spirit. Just because it is sitting on your night stand doesn’t mean it is protecting you. You must immerse yourself in the scriptures and prayer. We must know the promises of God if our plants are to survive the sun of persecution when it rises in our lives.
- Mitch
If you remember from last week, we are talking about the parable of the sower. Last time we talked about the first soil mentioned in the parable, the path. This week we are going to look at the second type of soil Jesus mentions, the rocky ground. Verses 5-6 says,
Other seed feel on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and Immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root it withered away.
In this instance the word of God hits the dirt and a plant shoots up, but because the soil is so shallow the sun kills the plant, and it doesn’t produce any fruit.
So here is what it looks like in our lives. God speaks to you and says, “Stop looking at those other women and be faithful to your wife.” Or “Find your identity in me. Find your value in me, not in how you look or what other people think.” And you say, “Yes Lord! I am not going to do that anymore.” Your plant springs up. You get excited and you start to run forward. You no longer participate in the conversations about the new receptionist. You stop worrying so much about how your hair looks, and everything is good. But then the sun comes out. In verses 16 and 17 Jesus says,
And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. (ESV)
Your buddies start making of fun of you, or you hear those ladies whispering behind your back. This is the point where your plant is tested. And depending on the soil it is planted in, it will either live and produce fruit or it will die, whither and be burned. Our first response might be to try and hide from the sun, but there is no escape from it. Jesus says that the world will hate us. And like we talked about last week, Satan wants to destroy us. He is going to do everything he can to try and keep the word of God from bearing fruit. There is no escaping from the sun; it’s going to try and burn you. There is no SPF 4000. Luckily, the secret to saving the plant is not hiding it from the sun, but increasing the depth of the soil. So how can we make our soil deeper?
Psalm 1:1-3 says,
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. (ESV)
The psalmist tells us that the people who obey God and remain in him; those who mediate on God’s law day and night, they are the ones who produce fruit. So if your soil is shallow, spend time reading your Bible. Know what the word of God says, so when the sun comes out it does not burn you up. Paul calls the word of God the Sword of the spirit. We can fight with it. Your friends say, “Come on man, it’s just looking. It’s not like your doing anything.” And you can say, “Jesus says if you look at a woman lustfully you have already committed adultery with her in your heart.” Or maybe that voice inside your head tells you that people won’t like you if you look like that, and you can answer back, “I am not to let my beauty be external but internal as the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.” We can fight against Satan with the word of God, but we have to know it if we are to use it. There is a reason why Paul says to “take up” the sword of the spirit. Just because it is sitting on your night stand doesn’t mean it is protecting you. You must immerse yourself in the scriptures and prayer. We must know the promises of God if our plants are to survive the sun of persecution when it rises in our lives.
- Mitch