Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
Introduce myself
Since I moved here I have become a huge Pats fan.
Over the last few weeks I have watched videos on Youtube of the various responses people had to the Super Bowl.
How do you think people from New England responded?
How about people in Atlanta.
It was especially funny watching how people responded as the night went on.
Today I want to talk a little bit about a different kind of event that people respond to in different ways, namely the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
To do so we are going to look at Mark 4.1-9.
Sowing the Word
Mark 9.
In this passage, Jesus tells a parable to explain the different types of responses people have to the message of the gospel.
In this story, the sower represents a person who goes out to share the word.
(SEE VERSE 14).
The word that Jesus is talking about is the gospel word.
It is the good news about what God has done for us through his Son Jesus to bring us into his Kingdom.
Because we have all broken God’s commands and treated our relationship with him as garbage we deserve God’s justice.
Living this way is called “sin.”
Now, you might think that sin is not really a big deal.
You might think that sin is an oops.
Do you know what I mean by that?
That sin is more of a mistake or a misunderstanding.
We might think that sin is a lot like being invited over to Tom Brady’s house.
We get there and he gives us some Hawaiian punch to drink and we trip and spill a bit on his white carpet.
We might say, “oops!” Ought Brady get upset at us for accidentally spilling on his carpet?
No, not really.
He might be frustrated by it but he would be a pretty major jerk for getting after us for that.
If sin is only an oops than it would be pretty unreasonable for God to get all that upset at us for it.
However, sin IS NOT an oops.
Sin is more like this.
We get invited to his house and when given punch we throw it in his face.
Then we go down his hall to his kids rooms and punch them in the face.
Then we go into his bedroom to pee all over his sheets.
Then we start kicking holes into his wall.
Would he have a right to get upset at that point?
Of course he would!
He would have a right to do something about it too, like calling the authorities.
See, our sin is like that.
We haven’t simply made a mistake.
We have attacked the very character of God and deeply offended him.
We deserve justice against us.
Even though we have offended God in this way he did the work to bring us back to himself.
He sent his Son Jesus to live a perfect life in our place, the life we ought to have lived.
And then Jesus died on the cross in our place, bearing the penalty for our wrong doing.
It was as though we were each on death row, headed for the chair, and Jesus came and was electrocuted instead of us.
This is good news!
We can be made right with God through Jesus Christ!
To receive God’s forgiveness for our sins we must trust in what Jesus did for us.
We must bank on him.
Let’s say I invited you out to lunch and I told you it was my treat.
If on your way to meet me you discovered you left your wallet at home and had no money, would you turn back to get it?
You would if you didn’t think I could pay the bill, or if you didn’t want me to pay it.
But if you believed that I would pay, you wouldn’t stress about not having money.
That’s what faith in Jesus looks like.
You are banking on him to come through with you.
You believe you will make it to heaven, not because of what you can do (the money in your wallet) but because of what Jesus did on the cross.
True faith in Jesus says, “If Jesus does not get me into heaven, I’m not getting in.”
Now there are many ways people respond to this message, this word.
Jesus identifies them in this parable, but only one of them leads to forgiveness.
Let’s continue.
The Seed on the Path
This first response to the gospel goes like this: the message goes out and it is immediately rejected.
Jesus says later in VERSE 15 that Satan comes along and takes it away.
Since the gospel message does not take root, it just sits out there and is exposed.
Nothing comes of it.
Some of you are hard soil, soil packed down like a path.
I just shared the gospel a second ago and all you could do was say, “meh.”
The gospel does you no good.
You have no interest in Jesus or God or Christianity.
In fact it bores you, or angers you, or you just don’t give a rip.
That’s fine.
There is nothing I can do for you.
You are just going to need to sit tight for now until I finish.
Those of you that know Jesus probably know friends or family who fall into this category.
No matter what you say, they have no interest in Jesus.
They are hard soil and any seed thrown their way will be devoured by the birds.
The Seed on Rocky Soil
The second response to the gospel is a bit different.
It is a response that I see often in many youth groups.
The gospel message is heard and appears to be immediately received.
There is joy and even an emotional response.
It springs up.
But it is shallow.
It does not last.
Soon, as life gets hard, as the scorching sun comes, what Jesus says later in VERSE 17 is persecution that comes, they fall away.
They abandon Jesus and Christianity.
It gets hard to follow Jesus.
Friends tease you for what you believe.
People think you are weird.
Your parents are irritated by it.
Whatever happens.
Then it doesn’t stick.
I have known many students who had these amazing emotion filled experiences, who after enduring some hardship are now no longer walking with him.
The gospel seed never truly took root in their shallow soil so it cannot endure the storm.
Some of you are in that category.
Some of you have had that experience.
But it won’t last.
Once it gets hard, you will bail on Jesus.
Some of you have friends or family like that.
You can think of people who seemed to love Jesus at one point but once things got difficult they gave up.
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