Episode Transcript
[00:00:04] Morning church.
[00:00:06] We all. Okay, so we're going to carry on the Luke series this morning, which we're really excited about. Hasn't it been good though? Diving into a gospel from start to finish, working through a full gospel. Have we got the fullness of Christ?
[00:00:21] I love the gospels. You know why? Because Matthew, Mark, Luke and John gave first hand accounts of when Jesus walked the earth. We can set the Word as gospel in our lives. The Bible is the truth from beginning to end. And these four men, they walked around with Jesus. Good to know that. Yeah, it's got to be good. So they were there at the time when it happened. They recorded it, become part of the Bible that we know. So it's the indisputable word of God. Church this morning. If you're confused about that, it's the indisputable word of God. We have called this series the Fullness of Christ.
[00:00:53] I just thought this morning it would be good to. What does that mean, Phil? What does the fullness of Christ mean? Well, it basically means the full aspect of who Jesus is. The full aspect of who Jesus is. Just a few examples. Jesus as saviour, as I heard this morning. Jesus as healer, Jesus as deliverer, Jesus as teacher. Jesus get this one. As friend. Who needs a friend? What a friend I have in Jesus. Remember that song, Jesus as friend and Jesus as revealer of God's glory. Come on, we ready? This is the fullness of Christ. This is what we're looking at. So the whole idea is, as we study this passage of Luke, this Bible story in Luke, where he was with Jesus when he walked the earth, is to capture the fullness of Jesus Christ. That's what we're doing. It's to capture the fullness of Jesus Christ.
[00:01:43] Guess what? Both our lives, which is nice, pick me up on a Sunday. But it's also that we can tell others about Jesus. That's the fullness of Christ. Not just for us, is it? So we're going to go in this morning to our passage which is in Luke 8, 4, 18. This is the first time in our study of Luke where we come across a parable.
[00:02:05] And you might be thinking, what is a parable? I'm sure you all know, but when I studied into it, this was the best explanation that I could find of what a parable is. Okay, it's probably good that I tell this first one, isn't it? On parables I like to tell stories. As you all know, there's not many Phil stories in this morning. So we'll go with Jesus stories, because they're probably better than mine. But what is a parable? A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.
[00:02:32] Do you like that? I liked it when I studied it. I'll repeat that. A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Think about that in your minds right through the sermon today.
[00:02:44] So we're ready for some Jesus stories. Yeah.
[00:02:46] So here is the first time and the most famous passage, probably as a parable. It's the first one, and it's called the Parable of the Sower.
[00:02:54] There you go. We've got that behind me. The parable of the Sower.
[00:02:57] I thought it'd be good to start with the sower himself before we dig into what Jesus said. Let's start with the sower.
[00:03:03] We know it's a farmer, okay? And we know he's probably sowing seeds as a farmer. So it's a farmer. He's sowing seeds as Jesus illustrated here in the parable. But we don't know who he is, the farmer. He doesn't tell us who the farmer is. We just know it's a farmer sowing seeds. And I thought about. And I thought. I think that's kind of the point.
[00:03:25] It's not important who he is. It's important what he does. Or he's illustrating what Jesus does when the seeds go on the ground that we're going to look at in the different places the seeds land. So, yeah, I think that's the point. It's just what he does. What does he do? He scatters seeds. This is what he does, Church. He scatters seeds.
[00:03:43] So here Jesus illustrates this first parable about the seeds. But before that, we too can be a farmer or sower, I believe before we look into what Jesus said about these seeds and where they landed, I think we too can be a farmer or a sower because the seeds represent the good news of Jesus, the Bible, telling others about him. Don't you think that's important?
[00:04:05] I love how you dig into passages. Sometimes you can read a passage of scripture, especially if you're preaching on them. You think, what am I going to get out of that? As you dig into the Word and you sit there and you study it, these things, just the Lord speaks to you. I thought, yeah, we can be too like that. So we can tell others about Jesus. I think it's a really important point to note that the message of the word of God we get to tell others about. Who have you told Jesus about this week or last week or this year, church. Come on, let's dig deep this morning. Let's itch a little bit. Who have you told about Jesus? We can be that sower, too.
[00:04:39] So back to the sower. Some versions say it's a farmer.
[00:04:44] I've got to have a little bit of fun in my sermon. Answer. My wife Le loves farmers. She does. Secretly, I think Esther wanted to marry a farmer.
[00:04:56] You ask her privately, I think she does. You know, all those mussels and cow milk and smell something about that Esther likes. And another one is, for some reason, we've done 20 years of marriage together, and with the kids going out and about, she always calls them Farmer John. It's like, you cannot be called any other name than John if you're a farmer. And we'd be driving along, she'd go, look, kids, there's Farmer John. And the kids are like, mum, how do you know he's called John? Oh, it's Farmer John.
[00:05:23] So, yeah, Esther loves farmers. Just thought I'd tell you.
[00:05:27] But that's not a Phil parable. That's not a Phil parable. Right. The exciting news is this morning, we too can be that farmer and sower for Jesus as we spread the seeds of his gospel.
[00:05:40] Let's dive into our passage. It's a great passage. It's basically talking about church.
[00:05:44] 4. I want to call them landing zones, as you think as a helicopter comes into land, they have a little big circle, don't they, with a H on it, that landing pad. There's four landing zones here in the Bible where the seed. These four seeds that are thrown land in four areas.
[00:05:59] First of all is the path.
[00:06:01] Secondly is the rocks.
[00:06:04] Thirdly is the thorns. And finally is the good soil. Some versions say the fertile soil. You with me? So there's four landing zones for seed.
[00:06:15] Now, generally, if you listen to a sermon on this, they would start with the path and work through to the good soil. At the end, we all feel better about ourselves, talk about the good soil, then go home.
[00:06:25] I want it to be a cheeky orchard and do it the wrong way around. I want to start backwards. There's a reason why I want to start backwards and look at seed number four, the good soil, and then work our way up. Is that cool?
[00:06:37] So this is the alternative power of the sower sermon. So we're all Christians in the church, I would hope. And if you're not a Christian, you might be thinking, why are these people waving their arms in the air? Why are these people getting so passionate about Jesus? Well, when you've accepted Jesus as your own Lord and Saviour. When you believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins, as Esther illustrated to us earlier on, is the best thing a human can experience.
[00:07:02] The God of heaven and earth loves you, gave his life for you. And if that's you this morning, he says he'd love you to know him, but he needs our heart. He asks for our heart. But to the rest of us, I guess that we are Christians.
[00:07:16] So let's look at that as the seed that came last, the seed that fell on the good soil. Jesus later explains this in verse 15. I love this, this first parable. He gave the parable. And then later on he explains a parable which is great for us. It was great for me preparing it. And it says this, it's in verse 15. It says, and the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good hearted people who hear God's word, cling to it and patiently produce a harvest. That sounds good, Church. That's why you all want it to be number four Christians, didn't you? Seed number four. Yeah, that's me, boss, that's me.
[00:07:51] So I want to pull a bit out of this at the start for me. I just love this bit at the end here where he says, this is Jesus explaining about the parable. He said to cling, to cling to God's word. To cling to God's word.
[00:08:06] That's in the new living translation. See, we cling to things we like, don't we Church? If we're honest. Think about it. You cling to things you like. Get this, the amplified. It says this, it says, are the ones. This is Jesus still talking. Are the ones who have heard the word with a good and noble heart and hold onto it tightly. So we've heard, cling to the word of God, hold onto it tightly. What do we hold on to tightly? Church, not Jesus. For a second. Let's just think of things we do.
[00:08:37] I think you could hold onto your car keys tightly in a crowd, in a concert, or maybe going through the tube at London. There's a lot of people around you, car keys getting pinched. So you hold onto them tightly because you don't want to lose your car. Is that fair?
[00:08:51] You hold on to the past.
[00:08:54] You hold on to the past. You hold on tightly to a kid's hand crossing the road. Yeah, you love your child, don't you? So you hold on tightly so they don't get hurt as you cross the road. I actually asked this question as I was finishing preparing this sermon yesterday in Dale, Gloria, I was having a wonderful ham and cheese panini and a wonderful coffee there, and I asked the team there and actually, hold on to the past was one of the answers that came out.
[00:09:18] Another person said to me, I like this one. He says, people hold on to the last word. Because I said to Morris, come on, what do we hold onto? And somebody said the last word. How many of us have an argument, Church, and we like to hold on to the last word. We like to be the last man or woman that spoke. That stinks.
[00:09:35] Esther has drilled that out of me. I don't mind admitting, In 20 years of marriage, holding onto the last word is not good, is it? Come on. What about humbling ourselves?
[00:09:43] Not. We'd always have to be right. You know what I mean? Do we have to hold on to the last word? Another good one that came out.
[00:09:50] We hold onto our image.
[00:09:53] Is that fair?
[00:09:54] Why do some people have facelifts in the 60s? Because they want to look like they did when they were 20. What they're doing, they're holding onto their image.
[00:10:02] What's the point, Phil?
[00:10:04] We hold on tightly to these things, Church, because really we love them and they mean a lot to us. Is that fair?
[00:10:12] Well, Jesus is saying here, hold on tightly to God's word. Hold on tightly to me, Church. Hold on tightly to me. That's what Jesus is saying.
[00:10:22] Do we read the Word of God, Church? Do we? Do we read. I don't read it enough. Do we read the Word of God?
[00:10:29] If we do, do we hold on tightly to it, church? That's the challenge this morning. Do we hold on tightly to it?
[00:10:36] Finally, the NIV who loves the niv?
[00:10:39] Good old Niv. Well, this is what the NIV says. Those three versions of the same kind of cling. To hold on tightly to the NIV says those who hear the word, remember Jesus talking, retain it.
[00:10:53] They retain the word.
[00:10:55] So let's think of the context there that Jesus is talking about. We know this is the good soil. The soil is referring to what?
[00:11:02] Our hearts.
[00:11:03] So that the soil is our hearts. And here it says for a seed to grow in the ground, it has to take root. If you look at the Bible application, I love this. A seed's got to take root, hasn't it? And once it's rooted, it grows to become a plant, a flower, a tree, or whatever. But first, when that seed goes in the ground, when the seed of the Word of God goes in our heart, what's the first thing it needs to do? Needs to Take root.
[00:11:28] That was the illustration. It goes in good soil, in fertile soil for the seed to grow, to become a flower or a tree, it has to take root, has to be given time to grow.
[00:11:37] And the NIV basically is saying here, for the Word of God, it has to be rooted. It has to be retained in our hearts for it to grow, it has to be retained in our hearts. Think about that. To give the time to grow the seed, the Word of God needs time to take root in our lives.
[00:11:54] And as it grows, guess what? We change church. We change to be more like him. If we're going to be the fullness of Christ, we change to be more like Jesus. As the seed goes in this fertile soil, we become more like him. We become more like Jesus. What happens?
[00:12:11] Old stinky attitudes, selfish ways, sinful ways should start to drop off us.
[00:12:20] Yeah, they should. As we become more like Jesus, we get rooted in him.
[00:12:25] And then the church Jesus finishes this with a good soil in our hearts. This is a bit of an itchy one. Are you ready? As he finishes this passage, he said, retain, hold on tightly, cling to the Word of God. And then he says in the niv, by persevering, we produce a harvest.
[00:12:43] Bit of an odd word as a Christian that, isn't it? That's the itchy one. It's, you've got to persevere, Church. You want to produce a harvest in your life for Jesus. As it takes rude the seed, you've got to persevere. That's what the NIV is saying. I love different versions of the Bible. When I study the Word, the next one amplified. Instead of persevering, it says this. Bearing fruit with patience.
[00:13:03] Who wants to be patient sometimes?
[00:13:06] Who prays and expects God to answer immediately, all the time. Do you know what? Sometimes in that perseverance, God's working in you and he's working in me. That's the reason he didn't always answer us straight away, because he's working with us to bear the fruit. He said it's needing patience and perseverance. Hang on in there, Church. For him, the Good News Bible. Who had a Good News Bible as a kid at Sunday school. Do you remember it? The yellow one with the rainbow on. Come on.
[00:13:30] You didn't have a good Sunday School experience without a Good News Bible.
[00:13:34] The Good News Bible says this. We've heard persevering, bearing fruit with patience. And the Good News says persisting, persisting until bears good fruit. That's Jesus talking about what the seed does. Remember in Our hearts persisting until it bears good fruit. You're not going to give up, are you? You don't just accept the Word into your heart and that's it. We have to persevere with Jesus and then the fruit comes. The fruit is what Jesus makes us to be. God will bless your lives. The best journey of life you could ever go on is with Jesus.
[00:14:07] The fruit that will come out will come out in many ways. Sometimes financial, sometimes a great life partner for you. That's a Christian, sometimes. So many different things in our life. But as we put God first and we do trust him and persevere for him with patience.
[00:14:22] Yeah, God's going to bless your lives. He's going to look after you. He's going to be there for you through thick and thin. There is no better life than walking with Jesus church. But first of all, what do we have to do? We have to. We have to get it rooted in our hearts. There's no quick fix here, folks. We want to grow in our walk with God. We have to retain, we have to cling to and we have to hold on tightly to God's Word and then it takes root in our hearts. When we're talking about a seed, the seed that goes in the ground, we have to retain, cling to and hold tightly. I love that, don't you? What do you hold tightly to? Church? And then it takes root in our hearts and then we need to persevere with patience and persist in our love for him and our study of the Word of God. I so enjoyed studying this Word. Spent two and a half hours sat in Dale finishing it off. It was such a sweet time of just me and him and the scriptures come like, we can all experience that. You don't have to stand here to do that. We can all experience that church. Just do it. It's the most wonderful thing. As you study the Word of God and Jesus promises that we will bear much fruit, one version says we'll have a huge harvest in our life. Come on, how good's that?
[00:15:30] So that's the good soil. That's the seed zone drop number four. That's got to be our aim, right?
[00:15:36] And I know you're all going to be saying, phil, I'm a seed four kind of Christian. Okay, fair enough.
[00:15:42] Well, should we look at zones two and three and maybe you might think so. Let's go backwards. Remember, we started at seed four. We started a good soil. Let's go the other way. So we're going backwards now. Now we're going to look at the thorns. This is seed landing zone number three. Yeah. Jesus explains here at the bottom. Again, he's explained the parable all the way through. And this is his explanation in verse 14. Now, this is the seeds going in the thorns. And he said, the seeds that fell amongst the thorns represent those who hear the message.
[00:16:11] But all too quickly, the message is crowded out. Listen. By the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. Well, that's not me, Phil.
[00:16:22] Okay, and so guess what it says next. And so they never grow into maturity. I'll read that all together. This is Jesus talking, remember? This is Jesus talking. The seeds that fell amongst the thorns represent those who hear the message. But all too quickly, the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life.
[00:16:48] So they never grow into maturity.
[00:16:51] Wow. I think that's pretty humbling.
[00:16:53] Bit of a. From Jesus there. Do the pleasures and riches and cares of this world keep us away from Jesus and a deeper walk with him? You want to bet your bottom dollar they do?
[00:17:04] Sometimes you've got to turn the telly off, folks. Sometimes there'll be summit on the box. And me and Esther have a little rule. It's three times they blasphemed more than three times. We might be watching the best movie ever. Might only be a 12. Off it goes.
[00:17:16] Inside we're like, I would love to know the ending of that film. It was good. You know, you're on the edge of the cliff thinking, what's the ending? If he's blasphemed three times, it's off.
[00:17:24] I just want to challenge you. What are you bringing to your homes? What your children are seeing, what we're all seeing and seeing with these eyes. Careful what you bring into your home.
[00:17:32] I love how Jesus finishing this point here, though.
[00:17:35] And I think it's the key point in this little third landing zone. And it's the word maturity.
[00:17:41] The NLT says they never grow into maturity. This is Jesus talking, the Christian that lets the cares of life, lets the worldly pleasures, lets the things. This thing is the killer. Where's my phone? That. Tell you what, that's a killer that can pull you away from Jesus. Sat there for aimless hours looking at Instagram and complete nonsense that can pull you away from God. That can be in landing zone number three. That can be. Let me tell you for nothing. So I'd hope to think I'm a three and a half on the weight of four, but there's too much of that in my life.
[00:18:13] The NLT puts that he says they never grow into maturity. The Good News Bible again. Come on. The Good News is back.
[00:18:21] It says their fruit never ripens. It's a good illustration, isn't it? Imagine being a tree and a sea, but your fruit never ripens. Come on, Church, let's not be Christians who. Who never mature or like that. Good fruit never ripens.
[00:18:39] Can a Christian never ripen into what Jesus truly wants them to be? Well, they must do, otherwise Jesus wouldn't have said this. Can you get saved and never be the Christian God actually wanted you to be? Through your own disobedience, your own selfish ways, your own walk with God? That's what Jesus is telling us. Sorry if this itches this morning, Church, but that's what it tells me.
[00:18:59] We might never ripen.
[00:19:01] Right, I've got a nice illustration. If there's anything to take home, I want you to remember this. There's always something in my preach that I want you to take home.
[00:19:08] Have you ever seen a green banana in the shop? You think, why would I buy them? And your wife buys them, they come home, but they become yellow, don't they? So she knew. But that's a green banana, isn't it?
[00:19:19] Correct. Well, it's trying to get yellow. So I bought it yesterday, thinking, don't go yellow yet. I need it for an illustration. That's a green banana.
[00:19:28] Yes, it's a banana, but it's not turned yellow yet. What's it not done? It's not ripened into the colour, the texture, the taste. It's not ripened into what it's actually meant to be. You eat that, it will probably kill you. It doesn't taste like that, does it?
[00:19:45] When they're yellow and they're going slightly brown. Whoa. When they're really brown, you might have to cut a few bits out.
[00:19:52] When they're like that, you open that. Be perfect. That's how it's meant to be. When the banana was born, it was always meant to be like that.
[00:20:00] Church, if you remember one thing, don't be a green banana for Jesus.
[00:20:05] I wanted you to laugh. That's the idea.
[00:20:09] Don't be a green banana for Jesus.
[00:20:13] I'm serious. Be a yellow banana for Jesus.
[00:20:17] Every time you go to Asda and buy bananas, do you remember crazy Phil on that sermon he did?
[00:20:22] Yeah. He's bananas. He's Phil. Thanks, Lawson.
[00:20:25] Don't be a green banana for Jesus Ripen, come to maturity Be all that you can be in Christ for Jesus Be a yellow banana for Jesus Sorry, I can't Keep a straight face. I was sat in day of glory preparing it. Thought, I need a sermon. Illustration.
[00:20:44] Green banana, yellow banana, but be a yellow banana for Jesus Church. I'll leave them there just in case we need them again.
[00:20:52] That banana's ripened, it's flourished, it tastes good. We taste good to those around us. Not literally, but the fruit in our lives, the seed that's gone in and taken root and come up and started to mature. Don't have to always win an argument. Don't always have to have the last word. Don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal.
[00:21:12] Yes, we still sin as Christians. We do because Jesus died for us and he knows we're in this partial kingdom. You've given your life to Jesus, but you're not there yet. But I tell you, on the way there, things ought to start dropping off you. So many people say, when I got saved, I just stopped swearing.
[00:21:28] That was my thing. I just couldn't swear.
[00:21:30] I was such a hypocrite when I was backslidden for those seven years. When I was younger, I'd be out with the lads in the pub. I used to swear. But somebody would blaspheme. With my Christian heritage in growing up, I did give my life to Jesus. When I was 14, I'd say it to somebody, hey, don't blaspheme. I used to think, you jolly charlatan, who are you? I probably had about seven pints of beer thinking, who the heck am I to say that? But you know, as I got saved, as I recommitted my life to God at 23 years old, it started to mean everything to me. Things start falling off. They do, and they should. Church and you don't miss out a thing when you put Jesus first. You don't miss out a thing. It is the best life he could live. But he starts to mature us. He starts to ripen us. That's what he's saying in his Word. He starts to ripen us.
[00:22:16] So are you a yellow or green banana, Church? Let's not be a green banana for Jesus, folks. That's what I want you to take away. This town out there needs this.
[00:22:27] Yeah. If we're going to reach that town for Jesus, he doesn't need these. I told you I'd need it again.
[00:22:33] Don't need these. He needs them. He needs all of you. Being kind, forbearing, patient. Go and look at the fruits of the spirit. If we're going to win this town for Jesus, the town needs to seem mature, kind.
[00:22:45] Christ Centered Christians to reach that town, not green bananas. Are you with me?
[00:22:52] That's landing zone number three. We going backwards now. So it starts getting even harder. So this is landing zone number two, the rocks Jesus explains here. Again, those. This is the seed, obviously, that land on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the Word with joy.
[00:23:10] But when they hear it, they have no root. As we looked at earlier, they believe for a while.
[00:23:17] Listen to this. But in the time of testing, they fall away.
[00:23:22] Wow. Wow. Church heartbreaking. You found Jesus. You've given your life to him. In fact, out of the four, this is the first one of an actual Christian. Number one, we'll look at in a minute. Never gets to know Jesus. But landing zone number two, the rocks. You've got to know Jesus. And then you fall away. Let me read it again. All together. It said, those, the sea that lands on rocky ground are the ones who receive the Word with joy.
[00:23:46] Yeah. So they've already found Jesus. Yes, I found Jesus. They receive the Word with joy, but when they hear it, they have no root.
[00:23:56] They believe for a while, but in the time of testing, they fall away. Let me tell you, the time of testing comes in many ways in our lives, many ways. Church. There's many ways to fall away from Christ. And the devil, he loves it.
[00:24:10] A lot of it can sometimes not be your own doing. You just succumb to the devil's tricks and plans and ways to pull you away. He doesn't want you to be a Christian. He doesn't want you to walk with God. He wants to steal your joy. He wants to take that joy away from finding Jesus.
[00:24:23] But again, what do we see here?
[00:24:25] There's no root. That's what Jesus says. He's explaining there's no root. As I explained earlier, the good soil had root, didn't it? It dug deep. When the trials came along, they had roots. You have a big tree. If it's got no roots, it falls over in the wind. You ever seen the trees by a river? The root goes on for ages, thinking, crikey, it's reaching out to get that water, that nourishment. But when the wind comes, it's stable. Same in our lives.
[00:24:50] Yeah, we've got no root. First trial that comes along, we're over.
[00:24:54] Yeah, we have roots. Jesus is telling us here. He said they had no root. That's why they fell away. They had no root.
[00:25:02] We've got to have our roots in Jesus and what and in His Word.
[00:25:06] Why?
[00:25:07] Because when those struggles of time, testing times come along, we won't fall away.
[00:25:12] We won't fall away. If you're a new Christian here this morning, let me encourage you. When the trials come along and the tough times and tough decisions to make, get your roots deep in Jesus and you won't fall away.
[00:25:24] We must all know somebody, church, mustn't we? Who's fallen away from their walk with God. I don't need anybody putting their hands up.
[00:25:32] Yeah, you've met the Alpha and Omega.
[00:25:35] You've met the beginning and end and the fallen away from the walk with God in their lives, which we've seen it, haven't we? We must all know a Christian that that's happened to. Do you know what that is? Tragic.
[00:25:45] It is tragic.
[00:25:47] What's the remedy for that not happening? To get our roots deep in Jesus, we've got to start making Christ centered decisions in our lives, in our relationships, in our decision making.
[00:26:00] That's where the roots come from. You want to get your roots deep, Start making Christ centered decisions in your life, in your relationship, in your decision making. Why? Because that draws us near to him. It pulls us near to Jesus, not away from him. Yeah, it pulls us near, not away.
[00:26:20] Read his Word, church, read his Word. Let it take root in us. You know, church is an answer to all these troubles and it's always written in God's Word. Please don't ever think that God's word was written 2,000 years ago and it's not relevant today. Well, there's this happening and there's that happening and I can't find that in God's Word. You will find an answer to every problem in this world, in this life, today, now in the Bible you will, if you read it properly. If you search for it like hidden treasure, it tells us to search. You'll find your answers in the Bible.
[00:26:50] Do you know the most sad thing about this landing zone number two, the rocks. It's Christians who fall away from the faith. It is truly tragic. Do you know, you might have heard of this, but a Calvinist, a Calvinist Christian would say that once saved, always saved. Okay, meaning if you've given your life to Jesus, basically you can fall away, live your life for you, let the pleasures come in, but you'll never lose your Savior. And Arminian is the other end of the scale. He believes you can go lukewarm and you can actually lose your salvation. Now I don't want to get into that this morning, but I tell you what, if that's a Calvinist and that's an Armenian, I'm Nearly there.
[00:27:28] Why the heck would you want to be lukewarm for Jesus? If you've truly found Jesus. I tell you what, it's not taken root if you want to fall away. If you've truly found Jesus, he changes us. You should not want to fall away. You should not want to live your life for him and think, it's all right, I've got my ticket. You know, like when you go to Alton Towers and you have a fast pass ticket, you walk past that long queue. It's a great feeling, by the way. Don't get me wrong, you walk past that long queue and you're like that with your little fast pass ticket. Thank you. Walk right to the front. These poor people that have been queueing for an hour, you just slide straight in.
[00:28:01] Don't be a Christian like that. It's not wrong to have a fast pass at Alton Towers, by the way. But we don't want to be a Christian, do we? That gives our life to Jesus, he says, finds it with joy and then just live our life completely for us. We're almost trampling on the grave of Jesus. That's my take on it. Give your life to Jesus, take root and you commit your life to Him.
[00:28:26] Finally, let's look at this. The landing zone, path number one. This is the most tragic. And Jesus explains it again. Here in verse 12, it says, the seeds that fell on the footpath represent those that hear the message.
[00:28:40] Only had to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved. Read that again. The seeds that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message and only to have the devil come take it away from their hearts. Did you hear that? The devil take it away from their hearts and prevent them from being saved.
[00:29:03] Wow. This is the unbeliever. Church. This is the unbeliever. So I'm going to let you off this one.
[00:29:10] I guess most of us know Jesus this morning. If you don't come and see me afterwards or keep coming to church, you'll find him if you come with an open heart. Think they're a crazy bunch, but there's something about that happened this morning. I want to come again. I want to know this Jesus that they know. Please come again. Don't stay in landing zone number one. But Jesus tells us here that some people do.
[00:29:29] Wow.
[00:29:32] Not a tough one, that church. Not a real tough one to hear.
[00:29:35] People that hear the word of God, but the devil snatches it away from them. Don't you think that's tragic. Don't you think it's awful that the devil is actively roaring around trying to fervently stop people from knowing Jesus and it's happening in that town, happening all over the world.
[00:29:52] Another translation says the devil comes to take away the seed of God and prevent them from finding Jesus.
[00:29:58] Wow.
[00:30:00] As you know, I love other translations. This is in the message. It says, this is the story about some people. The seed is the word of God. The seeds on the road are those that hear the word, but no sooner do they hear it than the devil just said it snatches.
[00:30:15] Snatches it away from them so they won't be saved. That's the devil doing the snatching. He snatches it away.
[00:30:21] I don't want the devil snatching the gospel away from people in this town.
[00:30:26] Do you?
[00:30:28] When I read this, I really thought about us as a church and the town of Newton Abbot. I did. I thought, come on. Do you know, I don't think it's wrong as a Christian, when the devil's concerned. I call him Old hairy legs downstairs. Right. I don't think it's wrong to have a righteous anger against the devil and give you that one for free. I don't. If we read that passage just like, fair enough. That's landing zone number one. Jesus said it. I think he wants us to read it and get upset.
[00:30:54] I think he wants us to go and do that all around Newton Abbott. I think he does. Right. I tell you, if you read that. Yes, there's some people that never find Christ. I find that tragic, but it's true. But I'll tell you what it should do. And we're starting it tomorrow night, prayer walking. It should make us want to tell everybody about Jesus. Let's do our bit to tell everyone about Jesus. Yeah. Starts with a prayer walk tomorrow night.
[00:31:17] I'm running out of time.
[00:31:18] So the lampstand verses I'll just go through very quickly, which is verses 16 to 18. It talks about the lampstand.
[00:31:26] To summarise. I thought it was really cool. I love sometimes when you read the Bible, it's the second parable after the parable of the sower.
[00:31:32] I thought Jesus is so cool. He put this in straight after that one. And I believe he did it on purpose because it goes straight after the parable of the sower. And it says this. The lamp represents our faith, our good deeds.
[00:31:45] Some translations says, let your light shine out before men the stand. This is us. For us to stand out.
[00:31:52] Stand out in that town.
[00:31:53] Yeah. Be a yellow Banana stand out. Don't be afraid to let your light shine out for Jesus, he says, don't put it under a bowl or a bed. Jesus is saying here. Don't hide your faith under a bed. Don't wimp out in that office conversation about sharing your message about Jesus. I know it's hard sometimes. I promise, if you have the guts to stand up for Jesus, you don't have to be in people's face. Just be real, just be natural. The amount of times I've had conversations, especially as a young Christian, in the pub with my non Christian friends, actually, especially when they had too much to drink, it drew them in. And as the drinks went on later on in the night and the barriers started to drop, it was that shoulder they came to talk to. What do you think of this, Phil? I'm going through this in my life. What do you think Jesus would think? I'm like, wow, I was scared to tell you about Jesus. Now you're asking me. Don't say no, don't say no.
[00:32:42] What's the final one? It says being seen.
[00:32:45] The point of the parable is for us to be seen, to see the light of Jesus in us, to be influenced by us and not the devil.
[00:32:55] Can you stand if you're able.
[00:32:57] Is that okay, Jacob, if you get that song ready, if you can, we'll start from number one. I'm going to summarise. So we're going to work up the way that everyone normally works up when they look at this passage, just to bring this to a conclusion. So the path. How do we combat the devil's schemes to prevent people knowing Jesus? Let our light shine out before men. Church the rocks. Isn't it tragic when Christians fall away from the faith? How do we combat that? Let our roots grow deep in Jesus. If you're a new Christian here today, please let your roots grow deep in Jesus. The thorns.
[00:33:37] Don't be a green banana.
[00:33:40] Yes, we could be a Christian. That's an unripened one.
[00:33:43] But let's mature to be a yellow banana for Jesus. The good soil. Let's cling to Jesus. Let's hold tightly to Jesus above all things. Let's retain his words deep in our hearts. And the root, just like a flower, will grow up and blossom. It will grow up in your life and you walk with God. People will notice a difference in you because root has taken root. The seed has taken root in your heart. Jesus will shine through us. Amen.
[00:34:10] Right when I was preparing this song, I really felt at the end to sing an old song that we hadn't sung for about 15 years that says, ever faithful God. I rang Matt Mach and he said, never heard of it.
[00:34:22] Spoke to Ollie on the drums this morning, never heard of it. That's okay. That's no problem. But I remembered it. Does anybody remember Ever Faithful God? You do, right? Well, he was out about 15 years ago and I just really felt to finish with this song at the end. And I didn't know why, but I felt to finish it. So we've got a version of it sung. It was actually on Songs of Praise, this. That was recorded 15 years ago. I wanted us all to sing along. But you know what? When I went home to prepare it, there's a line in there that says, ever faithful God, I cling to you.
[00:34:52] What did we talk about earlier on? Clinging to the word of God. I sat there as a little Yorkshire and thought, jesus, you're so amazing. I didn't know why we were going to sing that song. I know now. So he wants you to say, this is God's word for you. He wants you to cling to him as we sing this song. He says, ever faithful God, he will be faithful in your life's church. But he says, cling to me. I didn't know why to bring that song. I did. When I started playing the video, I was like, that's why, Lord. You don't need to be a preacher to experience that. As you dig deep into God's word, sometimes he'll speak to you. And then a week later, a day later, a year later, a month later, something will become apparent. You think, Jesus, you are so worthy. You're all knowing of my life. You're all knowing of my situation. All of us can experience that in our Christian walk. As you commit your lives to him, as you let the root, the seed take root, he's got a plan for you. He loves your church. He loves your journey with you. A lot of people say, well, it's just a coincidence, Phil, let me tell you, I've had so many coincidences as a Christian. Just like that song felt to bring that song. I didn't know why. Then I saw the lyric in it. Ever faithful God, I cling to you. Amen. Are we going to cling to him?
[00:35:59] Are we going to be a yellow banana? Come on, let's sing this song and worship him. Thank you, church.
