Red Letters #6 - The Master's Garden

In that first message, I talked about getting the words of Jesus into your spirit and your life so that you could have the life that He came to give - that ABUNDANT life that he spoke of in John 10:10. EXPAND!

And we laid out some “check points” to make sure it was happening for you:

1. Desire TRUE change

2. Gauge where you are

3. Measure what you’re taking in

4. Monitor your output

5. Engage a monitor

6. Check yourself

Wrap up Review

We’ve talked about Forgiveness, Trust and Judging - there is so much more. More than could be taught in a lifetime.

Which brings me back to our initial lesson. If you want the life that Jesus died to give you, its really incumbent on you to go out and get it for yourself. That’s why I started the series with the set of check points to help you determine how you are doing at it.

Today’s Message

So, today, I wanted to kind of “circle around” and come back to the do it yourself mode - what are you doing for yourself to attain the life of peace, joy, satisfaction and stability that Jesus gave everything for you to have?

Have you see REAL, life-giving change happen recently? Have you caught on to even ONE point of the word that has caused you to live life differently?

If not, then, as they say, this story is for you:

Mark 4:3–8 HCSB

3 “Listen! Consider the sower who went out to sow. 4 As he sowed, this occurred: Some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it sprang up right away, since it didn’t have deep soil. 6 When the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it didn’t have a root, it withered. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn’t produce a crop. 8 Still others fell on good ground and produced a crop that increased 30, 60, and 100 times what was sown.”

If the word that Jesus brought is spirit and life - then I want that 30, 60, or better yet, 100 fold increase that it can bring to my life. DON’T YOU?

The Farmer’s Way

Tell story of planting soybeans.

When Jesus told the parable, no one understood it. But then he explained his parable in terms similar to the story I just told:

Mark 4:13–20 The Living Bible

13 But if you can’t understand this simple illustration, what will you do about all the others I am going to tell? 14 “The farmer I talked about is anyone who brings God’s message to others, trying to plant good seed within their lives. 15 The hard pathway, where some of the seed fell, represents the hard hearts of some of those who hear God’s message; Satan comes at once to try to make them forget it. 16 The rocky soil represents the hearts of those who hear the message with joy, 17 but, like young plants in such soil, their roots don’t go very deep, and though at first they get along fine, as soon as persecution begins, they wilt. 18 “The thorny ground represents the hearts of people who listen to the Good News and receive it, 19 but all too quickly the attractions of this world and the delights of wealth, and the search for success and lure of nice things come in and crowd out God’s message from their hearts, so that no crop is produced. 20 “But the good soil represents the hearts of those who truly accept God’s message and produce a plentiful harvest for God—thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as was planted in their hearts.”

Though Jesus told this story over 2000 years ago in distinctly agricultural terms, it still applies 100% today as you will see. Because Jesus was talking about the heart - and who could know our hearts better than the Lord of heaven and earth - everything he said still applies.

I want to spend some time today talking mostly about the three states of our hearts that prevent us from receiving the word and having it produce fruit in our lives.

(Just what fruit has the word produced in you lately? What changes have happened?)

And by the way, these three “states” of our hearts relate to the three greatest enemies that we face in life. The three that stand the tallest in our path to trying to become what God designed us to be:

The Devil

The world

The Flesh

The Hard Heart

Devil

Mark 4:15 The Living Bible

15 The hard pathway, where some of the seed fell, represents the hard hearts of some of those who hear God’s message; Satan comes at once to try to make them forget it.

What makes a heart hard like this?

I guess there are many ways a heart can become hard like this, but it seems to me that there are two main ways:

We make it that way ourselves

Or others make it that way for us - either by what we LET them do, or by what they have forced on us without our permission.

Making it that way ourselves:

Locked in to a “doctrine”

don’t want to change

“not going any farther”

think they’re “good”

Hard hearts must be plowed up before they can receive the seed.

Jeremiah 4:3 The Living Bible

3 The Lord is saying to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Plow up the hardness of your hearts; otherwise the good seed will be wasted among the thorns.

God will do his best to plow up the fallow ground:

trials

troubles

Others making our hearts hard:

Soil becomes hard when too many feet tread on it. Either by things that were done to us before we were able to protect ourselves, OR by those who we’ve recklessly “open their hearts” to.

Forced on us (expand):

So what do we do?

Learn to trust in Jesus.

John 14:27 HCSB

27 “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Your heart must not be troubled or fearful.

Allowed by us (opened our hearts)

What do we do?

Guard your heart!

Proverbs 4:23 NIrV

23 Above everything else, guard your heart. It is where your life comes from.

Can’t just let anyone and anything in - ultimately it can block everything that Jesus wants to do in your life.

The Shallow Heart

(Flesh)

Mark 4:16–17 The Living Bible

16 The rocky soil represents the hearts of those who hear the message with joy, 17 but, like young plants in such soil, their roots don’t go very deep, and though at first they get along fine, as soon as persecution begins, they wilt.

The shallow heart (vv. 5–6, 16–17). This heart is like thin soil on a rock, very typical to Palestine. Since there is no depth, whatever is planted cannot last because it has no roots. This represents the “emotional hearer” who joyfully accepts God’s Word but does not really understand the price that must be paid to become a genuine Christian. There may be great enthusiasm for several days or weeks; but when persecution and difficulties begin, the enthusiasm wanes and the joy disappears. It is easy for fallen human nature to counterfeit “religious feelings” and give a professed Christian a feeling of false confidence.

Put another way - its like our hearts are divided. We give a very small portion to Jesus and the rest we keep for ourselves. So we become divided - a part of us tries to follow Jesus, and a part of us continues to be given over to the World.

So what do you do?

Dig out the stones.

Get your priorities straight:

Proverbs 3:5–6 The Living Bible

6 In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success.

An example: FOOTBALL

Football in itself isn’t evil - its ENTERTAINING!!

Don’t put off God for football. INCORPORATE God into football!

When a running back makes an exceptionally good run, find a scripture to describe it:

Psalm 18:29 NRSV

29 By you I can crush a troop, and by my God I can leap over a wall.

The stuff in your life that keeps the word from taking effect.

Busyness

The Crowded Heart

(The World)

Mark 4:18–19 The Living Bible

18 “The thorny ground represents the hearts of people who listen to the Good News and receive it, 19 but all too quickly the attractions of this world and the delights of wealth, and the search for success and lure of nice things come in and crowd out God’s message from their hearts, so that no crop is produced.

This hearer has too many different kinds of “seeds” growing in the soil—worldly cares, a desire for riches, a lust for things—and the good seed of the Word has no room in which to grow.

Its not like the stony heart that is divided - a small part for God and the larger part kept for themselves. No, in this situation the person truly surrenders to Jesus - loves him with all their heart, wants more, even longs for more. But they just can’t seem to advance for all the other stuff that is “intermingled” with Jesus.

Jesus said it himself: “the attractions of this world and the delights of wealth, and the search for success and lure of nice things come in and crowd out God’s message from their hearts, so that no crop is produced”.

Its like you get started going really good, and all of a sudden something comes up that gets you off course and sidetracks you.

So, what do you do?

Stay focused on the path.

Psalm 119:1–3 The Message

1 You’re blessed when you stay on course, walking steadily on the road revealed by God. 2 You’re blessed when you follow his directions, doing your best to find him. 3 That’s right—you don’t go off on your own; you walk straight along the road he set.

The Good Soil

Mark 4:20 The Living Bible

20 “But the good soil represents the hearts of those who truly accept God’s message and produce a plentiful harvest for God—thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as was planted in their hearts.”

“Accept” – to receive with assent and obedience.

The fruitful heart (vv. 8, 20). This heart pictures the true believer, because fruit—a changed life—is the evidence of true salvation (2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 5:19–23). The other three hearts produced no fruit, so we conclude that they belong to persons who have never been born again. Not all true believers are equally as productive; but from every genuine Christian’s life, there will be some evidence of spiritual fruit.

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