Obstacles To Change

Text: Luke 8:4-15

CIT: Lasting growth requires specific preparation.

Introduction: This is a though that I presented last year that I think is something that we need to consider once again just because of how vital this is to our week of camp. If you have been to our house then you have seen out bald spot in the front lawn. I have debated in my mind whether or not to put sod down or to just try and put seed down and let it grow. So, this spring I finally said okay, “I’ve got to do something about this” so I decided to plant some grass seed. So, I raked up all of the dead grass and weeds and then proceeded to put out the fertilizer and seed. I had followed what I had thought were all the directions. I came out the next morning hoping to see some little grass poking out of the ground but there was nothing. A couple weeks later I was really hoping to see something, but nothing. Needless to say, nothing ever came of my grass seed. What I realized later was that I needed to brake up the dirt and let the seed get down into the dirt. I should have watered it more consistently and I had to do something about the stupid birds eating all the seed. Unfortunately I didn’t see the growth that I wanted and actually no growth at all because there are specific conditions that grass needs for it to grow and I did not meet those, thus I did not get any grass from the seed that planted.

If we are not careful then that is what will happen to us while we are at camp. Many times we hear messages from God’s Word and it’s really good, we know we want to change, we make a decision and we wait and wait some more, we even wait a couple weeks whole night and come back and nothing has changed. We wonder if it was a defective message or if God really was really speaking to us, we wonder if camp is just a fluke, and then we just go on with our lives and eventually forget about the message, forget about the decision that we made, and we never see growth from it.

You can spend all kinds of money to get the best seeds, and see no return. In fact, you can spend quite a bit of money on camp, you can spend a lot of time preparing for sports and music, which we have, you can spend hours at the store getting that perfect outfit, but listen, you can prepare and spend all the money you want but listen, if you don’t make specific preparation to hear from God, if you don’t take time to specifically prepare your heart then the whole week of camp can be wasted.

I do want to be sure that we are clear from the get go. Yes, I want to win sports, I want to beat Stillwater, I want to win sportsmanship, I want to win choir and the other music competitions, I want to have a great time with you guys and make memories but if we go and that is all it is, you don’t get anything from the preaching, you don’t respond at all, you don’t really make any decisions, and it is all just fun and memories, then it is a wasted week. We are going to camp to hear from the Lord and for our lives to be different then when we came. In fact, if we please get this, if we lose every single competition on the first day, we lose choir, we lose cabin clean up, we lose sportsmanship, if we lose all those things but you guys take the preaching serious, and you make decisions for the Lord and keep them, then that will be the best week of camp we have ever had! I really do believe God can do something incredible in your life if you will let Him. I made the best decisions of my life at camp, I got saved at camp, I surrendered my life to the Lord at camp. But sadly there were a few years that were wasted because I did not prepare my heart to hear from the Lord.

Why does that happen? Well, because there are specific conditions for God’s Word to grow in our hearts and unless those are met there will never be real growth. There will never be change or fruit in your life from camp or any other decision you make for the Lord if you do not make specific preparation in the next week.

Here in our text then we have 4 different soils mentioned. Jesus is giving the parable of the sower. He starts out by giving an illustration of someone planting a seed in different types of soil and in each one it has a different response. What is really helpful is that Jesus interprets this parable for us right away. There is no mistaking what Jesus meant when He gave this parable. The seed that is being planted is God’s Word, it is preaching, and it is being planted in our hearts.

Introduction-The first thing that I want us to see is that your heart is soil to God’s Word. You are designed to receive the Bible into your heart. You are capable of hearing God’s Word and changing from it. You are capable of making decisions based on God’s Word. It doesn’t matter how many times you have said no to it, how many times you have heard this specific truth, you are designed to hear God’s Word and change from it.

Soil #1 V12: Hardened soil. This is the soil that has been trodden down, that has been packed down so hard that the seed just sits on top of it and gets eaten up or washed away. This soil I believe could mean two different things.

One it that it is the heart of an unsaved believer and that when the Word of God is preached, they don’t necessarily understand because they aren’t saved and nothing is done with the seed so it’s eaten up and nothing can be done with it. Obviously I think most if not all of you are saved in this room but if you are struggling with your salvation or you really know that you aren’t saved then that is something that will keep you from hearing God’s Word. That is the number one obstacle.

But, two, I believe that this soil could also be the heart of a believer that has a hard heart, that has said no so many times to God that it just doesn’t do any good anymore.

Listen, I believe that some of you have been in church for so long, you’ve heard preaching so much and you haven’t done anything with it, you haven’t allowed it to change you and you have hardened your heart to it. When there is preaching going on then you could almost care less. You don’t even notice anymore when the things you struggle with are brought up and you just don’t even feel the Lord speaking to you anymore. It is like the Word of God is hitting rock and just rolling off. I hope that is not you and if it is and you just treat this week of camp like any other preaching time or you just shut your heart off to the preaching and do what you want then you are bound to waste this week of camp and you are on your way to deception and some major mistakes because you are hardened to God’s Word.

If you can sit through a week of preaching like we are about to and just remain the same, not go forward at all, not make any decisions, then there is something wrong, you need to examine your life to see what may be keeping you from hearing God’s Word. This goes for you older guys but also you younger guys too, make sure that you are not so used to preaching and invitation that you don’t go forward when God has spoken to you. Don’t let this week of camp go by without at least asking the Lord to speak to you. It doesn’t matter how long it has been since you feel like the Lord spoke to you. He can still speak if you will allow Him and He can break up the most hardened heart in here. Allow the Lord to speak to you this week.

Soil #2 V13: This soil accepts the Word of God willingly but because there is no depth, because it is shallow it withers away at the first sign of trouble. When the seed would sprout up and the sun would start to shine, it would heat the rock up and the roots would die.

I believe this could describe many teenagers’ experience at camp. You hear something good in the preaching and you feel an emotion, or one of your friends goes forward so you think you should to, you think to yourself that you need a camp testimony so you better go up at some point, if you don’t make some kind of decision then people will look down on you, or you just go forward to keep up an appearance. Listen, if all you do is go forward or make a decision because of what others think or because someone else went or you are just a good church kid and you need to maintain appearances then that decision is not going to last long.

Maybe that is not why you go forward. Maybe the Lord really is speaking to you and you really need to go forward to get something right with the Lord. Let’s say you make a decision to be a better witness to your friends and to stop saying bad words and jokes. That is a great decision to make at camp! But, if you come back home and you never read your Bible, you never pray, you never listen during the preaching, you never witness to your friends, you still watch bad movies, you still watch wrong things on YouTube, you keep the same bad influences in your life, if you don’t change anything and you are still just doing what it takes to get by and just try to be that good church kid on the outside then that decision isn’t going to last. As soon as things get hard then you fail.

Don’t let that be the case this week. You can start preparing your heart right now by refusing to be shallow. Taking God’s Word serious, listening when preaching and teaching is happening, refusing to settle to just look the part but to want to honor the Lord in the things that people can’t see like your thoughts, your interactions with each other when no one else is around.

Seek to be a deep teenager. Depth is produced by consistent attendance to church, Bible reading, and prayer. You cannot have the spiritual depth to see God’s Word grow unless you are consistently in church and paying attention, unless you are consistently in God’s Word and in prayer. If you don’t have depth then any little thing can take away God’s Word out of your heart. There are a lot of temptations that can burn the roots of our decisions.

Maybe the Lord is speaking to you during a message but you are so frustrated that the B team beat the A team in football and you can’t get your mind off of it that the decision you did make just falls away. Maybe there is something in a message that God is speaking to you about but you begin to think about what your friend sitting next to you might think about you and so you decide not to go forward and then just go to lunch and forget all about it… That has happened to me before.

I have seen this happen every year and it really grieves my heart to see it. Some of you are on the other side of this scenario, when it comes time for the invitation, you start to talk to one another, you start to laugh at something that was said or something that happened and you immediately take away any serious thought your friend had of making a decision. The last couple years there was one guy that I saw that was really feeling convicted and he started looking around and saw someone else smirking and laughing at something and he immediately closed his eyes and didn’t come forward. If that is you then shame on you… You ought to never be the one that distracts someone from hearing God’s Word. That goes for during the service and for during invitation. Don’t be the one that is the temptation to let the seed of God speaking to your friend burn up. In fact, you can be a help instead of a hindrance and you can ask someone if they want to go forward with you. I know that may seem uncomfortable but it is also very helpful for accountability and for courage to go forward. Even if you feel like you don’t have a ton to change or you made the decision in your seat, just come forward and talk to one of us about it because if you go forward, many times that will give your friend the courage to step forward as well.

Soil #3 V14: This soil is probably the one that we can most identify with and one that we struggle with the most.

One week of camp, once a week, or even three times a week of preaching is not enough to combat a life and heart that is filled with thorns. If all you do is come to church and act the part but you go home and watch whatever you want, let your mind think about whatever it wants, say whatever comes to your mind, talk to whoever you want, give in to any pleasure that you want, then you will NEVER change. Just growing up in church or being a church kid will not counter the sin that is in your life. Coming to church three times a week and coming to SS can’t overcome sin in your life. Going to camp and hearing 13 messages won’t overcome the sin that you still hold on to, that habit that you can’t kick, those friends you still hangout with. That is why it is so so important that right now, you examine your life to see if there are any thorns or sin in your life that could choke out the decisions that you desperately need to make.

Thorns-I promise you, you may not think that those thoughts that no one else can see is a big deal, those videos you are watching on Youtube aren’t that bad, those things you laugh at on social media aren’t too bad. Listen, if there is cussing, if there are sexual innuendos, if there are perverted topics, inappropriate dress, wrong things, then that is not okay with the Lord. That is sin and God is not okay with that. If you are talking back to your parents, you don’t obey them, you talk back to them, you obey but with a bad spirit, that is sin. If you respond with a bad spirit to your spiritual authorities like Pastor Jett or even your youth pastor then that is sin. If you are joking about inappropriate things with your friends, if you are cussing, if you constantly make fun of and put down other people, if you are doing things that wouldn’t honor your parents, if you are always angry, if you are always acting out in anger then that is sin.

That is a VERY small list and there is so much more I could get in to but I trust that you know some areas in your life that you struggle with. If you have sin in your life and you don’t get it right with the Lord and right with your parents, your friends, your authorities then I promise you, YOU WILL WASTE THIS WEEK OF CAMP. That is plain and simple. God can’t be around sin, He can’t speak to the person that has sin in their life.

Psalms 66:18 “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:”

1 John 1:6 “If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:”

If you say that you made a decision at camp and you say that you are right with the Lord and yet you still have sin in your life and you don’t get rid of the wrong things then that decision makes no difference.

Isaiah 59:1-2 :Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: (this means that God wants to speak to you, He is capable of changing you…) But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”

There are countless other verses and examples in the Bible that we could go to that would show us that sin separates us from God, our sin will keep us from hearing God, and our sin will keep us from keeping our camp decisions. This week, do an examination and see if there is sin in your life that you need to take care of before we go to camp. See if you need to get some things right with your parents, see if there is someone you need to ask for forgiveness, see if there is some things in your life, a bad influence, wrong things on your phone, wrong thoughts, bad habits, sin in your life that will keep you from the change and work that God wants to do in you this coming week at camp.

Closing-We will get into some other things that I think will be helpful next week, but I want you to pray and ask the Lord to reveal if there is anything in your heart and life that will distract you or keep you from making decisions for Him this coming week at camp and if so, then let Him help you take care of those things.